by Tiffany S. from Virtuous Daughters, September 2004~Volume 4, Number 6 Anyone who spends even a small amount of time on computers is familiar with the convenient “undo” button. :) It is in Microsoft Word, all of the craft and card programs, and even some games. But I have learned that in the reality of life, there is no undo button. When I make a mistake or say something I later regret, I cannot take it back. I can do my best to fix it, but I can never take back the past- what happened yesterday, last month, or last year. Many of you have asked if I do the newsletter all at once or throughout the month. I prefer doing it at once, so I usually start a little before the 24th or 25th and finish it four or five days later. (Those one day records have not been fun! :)) The only problem with this is that after being on the computer for long periods of time and in consecutive days, I forget when I am at another task that I am not at the computer anymore! :) For example, I might be crocheting, and when I make a mistake, the first thing that comes to mind is “Undo!” (I really have found that button convenient in my own work at the computer as you may have noticed by now! :))
I am definitely grateful for the technology that we have today- just about anything that is done wrong on a computer or some other machine can be fixed and done right again. But God did not install undo buttons in us. (He wants us to learn from our mistakes! :)) Therefore, we must take special care to do things right the first time. Not only does this please God, but it makes things easier on ourselves and those around us. Let us examine some Scriptures that teach doing that which is right and God-honoring: Proverbs 1:10 “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” James 1:14-16, 22-23 “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.” James 4:7, 14, 17 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” Colossians 3:17 “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…” Philippians 2:4 “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” Have you ever done something that offended someone, and even though you don’t do it anymore (a former habit) they continue to talk about it? There is a point to that very aggravation. We cannot undo what we have already done in real life! :) You may have stopped taking their water at every meal a long time ago, but they don’t realize it because you used to do that and it irritated them- all they remember are the times you did. Let me give you a little story about two sisters- Karen and Stephanie Karen, though she is not trying to be selfish, has a tendency to always take Stephanie’s pencils during school. Stephanie happens to be quite organized, while Karen happens to be quite disorganized, but Karen does not see a problem with borrowing her dear sister’s pencils every day. Besides, Stephanie has a whole set of them in her little organized stuff maker box in her school desk! And Karen can’t find the set she bought at the beginning of the school year. (Does this sound like a similar situation with one of your siblings at home? :)) Karen continued to take Stephanie’s pencils, and Stephanie continued to get irritated about it. “You know what,” she finally blurted out one afternoon when everything else had gone wrong for her that day as well, “I am really- you just don’t- please don’t- please don’t take my pencils anymore! Because when you do,” she looked in her previously organized stuff maker where all of her pencils were missing, “Look- they are all gone- the package and all!” Karen looked ashamed. “I just thought I’d take the whole set instead of keep on getting a new one each day. For some reason,” she looked up, twisting her hair with one finger, “I keep losing them. I’m not really sure why. But I’ll try not to lose your pencils anymore.” She gave her sister a sweet smile and hopped out of the room. “Good!” Stephanie said, adding “pencils” to her list of things to buy at the store. Time passed, and school continued on. Karen had made a wonderful resolution- to not use Stephanie’s pencils anymore, unless of course, she was in utter desperation. But so far she was doing really well- the past two weeks- and she hadn’t said anything to Stephanie. She wanted her to notice on her own. “Yes, I would say I am doing well,” Karen told herself one morning as she sat in her school desk. She looked down at her own creative way of not losing pencils- she invented a pencil necklace. So far it was working wonderful, and she was a little pleased with her bright ideas to not irritate her sister. One night at dinner Karen was mentioning how much she needed to work on her organizational skills. “I really struggle,” she said with a frown. “I just have a hard time seeing the benefits, I guess. It’s not that I don’t want to be organized. But it is just a big job, and I just don’t know how I will ever be able to conquer that sort of task. You are a pretty good organizer though, Stephanie. Do you have any tips?” She looked at her older sister. “Well, I’d be happy to help you, Karen. Maybe we’ll start with those pencils!” she gave her little sister a teasing smile. Stephanie laughed a little thinking of what irritated her so much, but then she saw Karen’s eyes droop and her smile turn to a frown. The joke would not have bothered Karen in the least, except that she had been working so hard at using her own pencils. Didn’t she even conquer it? Yes, in fact, she had taken not one of Stephanie’s pencils since she had made that pencil necklace. That was probably a whole month ago! Why would Stephanie make that comment when it wasn’t even true anymore!? The point of this story was not to make you laugh- though it may have done that- but to help you see that people often don’t forget what we do to them. It is not always intentional. But they just don’t forget very easily. Karen had worked hard at not losing her sister’s pencils, but because it had been a habit in the past for so long, Stephanie had still not noticed the change that had taken place. I have learned two things from this: 1) That I should be very careful to not bring up things people do that irritate me, especially if I’m not sure if they even do them anymore. They may have broken the habit without my noticing, or they may be working on refraining from irritating me in that way. 2) To not be hurt if someone brings something up that I used to do that irritated them; they may not have noticed yet that I have broken that habit- it is my fault that I ever did it in the first place! Sisters, we do not have undo buttons. I know- we all wish we did- but God thought it best to leave us 100% human and humans do not have that function. (At least we get to use them on computers- - we should be grateful! :)) But it is a good thing. If we could undo the past, life would be a big mess. Truly it would. I am writing to tell you two main points- - For one, let us be careful to do everything to the glory of God the first time! Let us think of others’ feelings. Before we blurt something out, we should think about what we are about to say. For one, we do not want to hurt others, and secondly, they might never forget how we hurt them. They may not hold it against us for years on end, but they may not forget. My second point- we should avoid bringing up others’ faults. For example- years ago my brother used to drink my water. Many times when I sat down at the table, I would go to get my cold, icy water and- it was gone! I remember one night at dinner casually teasing him about that when he told me “I stopped doing that- you never noticed?” I felt awful but it made me realize where I was erring. “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter seperateth very friends.” Proverbs 17:9 If we truly want good relationships with others then we will “forgive and forget” their faults- that is what Christ has done for us! So dear sisters, walk in the ways of the Lord. “Do not err, my beloved brethren.” Purpose to do everything in the name of the Lord and to the glory of the Father. God will bless you as you seek Him! Comments are closed.
|
The Article LibraryThis "Library" contains articles that were published in previous issues of Virtuous Daughters. It will keep growing as we continue to upload articles from the 20 years of printing. We pray they are an encouragement to you! Categories
All
Archives
March 2024
|