I Swear the Dog Licked My Monitor!

Today as I got up to read the news, Facebook (this keeps you more updated than the news!  Ha!), and various other things I do on the computer, I noticed I was bobbing my head from side to side.  I could not read very well what the entire monitor was showing me so in trying to see better I was trying to look from different angles.  I turned it to where the light could hit it just right and noticed weird long smudges!   I never touch my monitor!!  It looked like someone had taken their tongue, a tiny tongue at that, and had literally licked my monitor!  I looked  immediately to one possible culprit, my malshi,  Molly.  Then I thought of two other possible suspects...my chihuahua, Gracie and my daughter's chihuahua, Daisy!  Yes, that had to be it!  One of them got on the couch, crawled over to the side table where I keep my computer, and when I wasn't looking, took a good , long swipe at it with their tongue!  Ewww!  I went to my husband's office and got computer monitor wipes and cleaned it and what a difference it made.  My head was no longer bobbing like those old "cow" ornaments we used to see sitting on dashboards of cars  back in the day when we were younger.  I could see clearly!  As I began to think about this in more depth I remembered I had read something to my husband, and as I did I remembered  I DID put my finger on the monitor because I kept losing my place.  It wasn't the dogs' tongues I was seeing, it was MY OWN fingerprints!!  This made me think of something.  That is how it is when we don't see things in people or conversations clearly.  It is all muddled  because our vision of things can be distorted through hurt feelings , offense, or just plain dislike of someone and because of that we really don't see TRULY!  Sometimes we need the eyes of our mind wiped down with God's word and just have a good washing in the blood of Jesus!  Have you ever known someone like that?  You can prove, without any doubt, they have misunderstood something and they will NOT admit to their mistake.  Why is it so hard to just say, "I was wrong!"  This is a double-edged sword!  Why do we need so badly to hear someone admit when they are wrong?  Why do we need so badly to hear, "You were right and I was wrong" before we can extend any mercy and grace to the one who was?  The Bible says we have ALL sinned and come short of the glory of God.  In other words, we have all been mistaken.  I like what Joyce Meyer says, "We see ourselves through rose colored glasses, but others through magnifying glasses!"  Oh, how true that is.  It never occurred to me I had smudged my own monitor!  I immediately looked for it to be someone else or something else that had done it.  This is typical human nature.  Adam set this precedence when he blamed Eve for him eating of the tree of knowledge!  He knew it was wrong!  He was not fooled by the serpent the Bible tells us, yet he did it anyway!  Then when God called him "on the carpet" about it he said, "It was this woman you have given me!"  That response still tickles me to this day!  Why?  Because I can relate to it, and I am sure you can, too!  The Bible tells us when we can admit our wrong promotion is soon to follow.  Think of the prodigal son.  As he sat in the pigpen it all began to hit him.  Oh, how wrong about his life and his family he had been!  Look where he had ended up!  Maybe you have made some wrong choices.  Maybe you didn't see things clearly and the enemy fooled you.  Don't be ashamed, my dear reader!  It is shame and pride that keeps us from saying, "I was wrong and the sooner I "right" this, the sooner I'll see the blessing restored to my life!"  It says the prodigal son "came to himself"!  When he did, he set out for home!!  His father, who is a type and shadow of our Father God, wasn't looking down the road to tell his son, "See there!  I told you so!  There is no place like home and you should never have left it!"  It says he RAN to meet him!  He EMBRACED him!!  Then he began to order a feast to be prepared to celebrate his son's return home!  He was overjoyed to see his son had come home and restored to him on the spot his full inheritance!!  It is the same with God.   He is not going to say, "I told you in my word!  If you had just listened, you wouldn't be in this mess!"  NO!!  A HUNDRED TIMES OVER NOOOO!!!  That would be pride on our Father's part and God CANNOT do wrong and pride is outright SIN!  The one that said, "Why should he be treated special??  He took his inheritance and squandered it!  I have stayed and been perfect (pride is showing up here isn't it?) and done only right!  Why has a feast never been prepared for me??"  The "faithful" son was jealous and enraged his brother did not get "what he deserved" so to speak!  How like the Pharisees this is.  They accused Jesus of the same thing.  They strictly observed the Law, while Jesus broke it in showing love, compassion, and forgiveness instead of demanding punishment and retribution!  Self-righteousness demands punishment and for others to tell us how wrong THEY have been and how right WE have been!  Check your "glasses".  I remember a story my Paw-Paw used to tell.  He was a minister and pastor.  He was my pastor for 23 years and I never failed to find this story not only funny but helpful!  It is supposed to be a true story of a woman who had a neighbor who always hung her wash out on the line to dry. The lady would always look out of her kitchen window as she did her dishes and would look at the neighbor's laundry she had hung out earlier.  She got to the point that she greatly disliked her neighbor because every time she hung her clothes out to dry the clothes were so filthy it looked like soap and water had not even touched them!  One day she remarked to her husband, " I am so tired of looking at her dirty laundry!  Can't she see how filthy it is?"  The husband then replied, "Her laundry isn't dirty.  When I went outside the other day I noticed it is cleaner and whiter than ours.  I also noticed our windows are dirty and I am going to have to wash them soon!"  Because the lady was looking at her neighbor's laundry through her own dirty windows, she failed to see clearly what the real problem was.  Her view was distorted!!  Let us ask ourselves, "Am I being pharasitical and is my vision distorted or am I seeing things through the eyes of my Heavenly Father?"   Let us look through the loving, forgiving, RESTORING eyes of God!