Ok, so this meme is posted to be funny, and I hope you’re laughing.
But honestly, there’s a little bit of truth here, and realistically, on both sides.
We can’t go around “locking people out” of our lives every time we dislike what they say or do.
Yet, for our own well being, there may be times that we need to lock that door.
If you’re feeling quick to agree or disagree with me, I’ll urge you to pause.
Your feelings of justification or accusation may not be accurate once you hear my thoughts…
In this culture we are living, it seems everyone can be offended, and everyone is demanding tolerance and acceptance.
In this modern society, everyone screams to “let me be me,” and if “you don’t, you hate me!”
Candidly speaking, this is a dumb statement on both ends of the spectrum.
If you are in the camp of those who are quick to gain offense and demand acceptance, in actuality, you are forcing that of me, but yet, I’m not allowed to do the same of you (because then, I’d be intolerant).
If you are in the camp who states emphatically that my disagreement proves my hatred, then in reality, you have just pointed the finger to the very thing you are doing to me (because now you are “hating on” me).
Both responses are unfair and unreasonable.
Both reactions are illogical and quite biased.
If you are truly desiring relationship, these expectations are one sided and selfish, and they only bring toxins and codependency.
If you are truly looking for companionship, these pressures are pompous and even narcissistic, and they only bring death and destruction.
If you are truly seeking connection, then you’ve got to have some give and take.
If you are truly pursuing friendship, then you’ve got to become less demanding and a little more understanding.
And this is when the decision to open the door or close it becomes essential.
Not because we need to go around locking out every controlling or domineering person we encounter,
And not because we need to become people of only rules and regulations; there must be second chances for mercy to flow.
But rather, we need to open the door wide to those who welcome, warm, refresh, strengthen and challenge the heart.
And we need to close it to those who demean, ridicule, imprison and manipulate the soul.
Learning when to lock the door and expand it takes a lifetime of wisdom, love and self-control.
Learning takes a lifetime of failing and succeeding.
It’s a hard lesson, but it is attainable.
It’s a arduous journey, but it is worth it.
Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?
Amos 3:3
Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
1 Corinthians 15:33
Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Too many today attempt to play the nonchalant card.
They try to act as if they can do what they want, you can do what you want, and no one pays any rewards or consequences.
It’s just living life.
But oh. How wrong we can be.
If I always do me, and you always do me, all we create is two spheres full of selfishness and self centeredness.
If I’m focused only on me, and you only on you, we become consumed on our own desires, our own requests, our own demands.
And eventually, no one else matters.
Yet, it’s supposed to matter because after all, my expectations are highest priority to me.
And your expectations are highest priority to high, and then, we’re both at an impasse.
Because if it’s all about me, and it’s all absolutely you, then, you don’t matter to me, and I don’t matter to you!
What wretched and lost souls we become, and what wrecked havoc we leave for those behind us.
All kindness, and love and harmony is expected for me (and for you), but it sucks the life out of all those who are impacted because they are seeking the same.
And what about the children racing toward the edge of a knife?
What about those innocent souls who cry out to be loved, nurtured and directed?
Our self consumption depleted their hope for tomorrow because all they can see is our command for the now.
What we do in life does echo in eternity.
It is a repeating anthem across the chasms of time.
What will your reverberations be?
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’schildren, But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
Proverbs 13:22
So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children’schildren have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day.
I read something recently that began, “Your calling is going to crush you.”
If I weren’t a Christian, and I’d never heard of a calling, or that statement might intimidate me.
If I weren’t called, that quote might make me wrinkle my forehead and wonder why someone would be liking to be crushed by something they chose.
But that’s where information and revelation alter your perspective.
See, when you have no revelation, you might not understand why I do the things I do.
When you have no revelation, you might not grasp the importance of my choices, if my sacrifices, of my disciplines.
Oh, but when you have a revelation, your eyes are open, your heart is refreshed, your soul longs for one more moment, one more taste of that living water you’ve found.
And you’ll do anything to maintain it.
You’ll do anything to keep it.
You’ll do anything to remain in it.
You’ll lay down desires, and expectations, demands and wishes.
Just for another moment.
It’s like finding a new love, but it’s so much more.
It’s like recognizing a new craving, but it’s beyond that.
It’s like getting a glimpse of paradise, but it’s to a greater extent.
If you’ve never experienced the moment, it will be difficult to explain it.
For it’s not a simple piece of knowledge that can be spoken or read about.
You have to fast it.
You have to feel it.
You have to experience the revelation.
Then, you’ll never be the same.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you livingwater.”
John 4.10
As the deerpants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.
(Yeah. Somebody spelled it wrong, and my grammar self is going crazy inside!)
Some people don’t really have to be crazy.
They’ve just committed themselves to being a certain way, and their stubbornness will not relent.
Others have lived undisciplined for so long that they have convinced themselves this is a good life.
Still others, have fully embraced their crazy, and they want everyone else to embrace it as somehow normal.
If you find yourself in one of these three categories, and you’re living life believing everyone is just giving you a hard time, or they’re all just so difficult to be around , or they never give you a break to be who you are, please hear me screaming at you across the cosmic divide.
STOP!! HALT!! RELEASE!! RELENT!! END NOW!
Stop right now, in your tracks, and listen a moment to reason.
Open your ears to wisdom calling to you.
No one accidentally becomes the “crazy one.”
No one stumbles into the pools of insanity.
It is a choice. And you make it everyday.
So, make the right decisions.
Choose the correct outcomes.
Your spouse will thank you. Your children will sing your praises. And friends will begin to visit again as you walk away from the crazies and embrace life!
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
Philippians 3:13-16
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
*I do not own or have rights to this pic. Google search/Fb repost*
You weren’t made to stay in the valley.
You weren’t made to remain stuck in the mire.
We all feel pain.
We all have heartache.
We all experience tragedy.
The brokenness of life was never meant to be a trophy we wear nor a badge we frame for the wall.
The hardship didn’t come for you to create a fortress around and hail the crisis as king.
We all feel the rain.
We all have tornadic seasons.
We all experience death, sorrow and grief.
You weren’t made to linger in the basin of despair.
You weren’t made to hover in canyon of defeat.
Look up. Cry for help. Claw your way out.
Write your survival guide and pass it along to the next to-be survivor.
Your destiny is waiting, and your little ones are watching.
Thus says the Lord to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held— To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: ‘I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me.
Isaiah 45:1-4
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Too often, we lie down in the muck and more of what life has given us, and we choose to wallow in it.
If you are going to be more than what is behind you and beyond what is around you, you must step up, step out, and make a new path for yourself.
No one said it was going to be easy.
In fact, there will be moments when you have to fight, and kick, and claw your way out of the mud and quicksand that threatens to overtake you.
But I promise you.
If you will struggle, you will advance.
If you will resist, you will move forward.
If you will fight, you will become.
As I heard a wise man say once, “If you won’t fight for it, you don’t deserve it.”
Brawl, grapple, wrestle, clash and attack.
Survive and then thrive.
It will be well worth it.
And your children and those who love you will thank you.
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
Philippians 3:7-8
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
There’s an old song that says, “You can’t always get what you want,” and although I don’t necessarily want to promote the song or the singer, the statement holds some truth.
Scrolling through social media on Father’s Day weekend brings this truth to a glaring reality when you’re a daughter of a broken home and a not so idealistic parental relationship.
However, these are also the perfect moments for God to do what He does best. His Word says, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families…” Psalm 68:5-6.
Throughout my life, He has brought incredible “fathers” to fill the void, and I am eternally grateful for them and for all He has done. ❤️
So, if you find yourself in a similar predicament, LOOK UP.
Your Heavenly Father loves you and is waiting for you.
And look horizontally, He will bring those father figures close when you need them. 💞
He heals thebrokenhearted And binds up their wounds.
My journey didn’t stop with mere time travel or writing; it led me to become one of the most sought-after empaths, a soulful psychic who reads the hidden depths of the human spirit. I’ve been blessed—or perhaps burdened—with an ability that allows me to feel the emotions of people from every corner of time.
I am a licensed psychologist based in Greece. My love for housekeeping has inspired me to create this blog about home management and family relationships. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing!
Dedicated to movie nerdom, nostalgia, and soul invigoration. In the late 90s, I worked at Blockbuster Video where they let me take home two free movies a day. I caught up on the classics and reviewed theatrical releases for Denver 'burbs newspapers and magazines. Today, while raising two young, beautiful daughters with my amazing wife, I look forward to anything rated R and not Bluey. Comments and dialogue encouraged!
