There are so many different personality types or mixtures of personality types. You would think as an interpersonal communications major through college, that would have stuck with me, but it didn’t. I seem to forget that different personalities see things differently. I am personally a people pleaser. I don’t like to cause trouble (for the most part) and I don’t like to see people upset or angry. I thrive on making people happy. Now I will admit that there are plenty of times that I want to rip someone’s hair out and defy them just to spite them, but usually, I try to please everyone. One of my daughters is very similar to me, loves to cuddle, but has an ornery streak. The other of my daughters, the oldest, is the complete opposite from me.
She knows what she wants, when she wants it and by golly she is going to get it! Now – that is fantastic because I know in the future she is going to go far. She is going to have goals and dreams and aspirations and meet them and make her life exactly what she wants it to be. A very strong willed woman and very strong in general. After she got out of bed for the 6th time last night, and after we had begged and pleaded with her to stay in her room and to let mommy and daddy and her sister sleep, she STILL came out. Finally, I informed her that if she came out one more time, I was going to punish her. She is still sleeping in her room right now. (Hooray for Mom victories). My daughter knows that I love her, and I know she loves me, but there has to be that fear, that respect that idea that she knows mommy can punish her, to make our relationship work.
There are so many times that I look at the world and see all this sin and disgustingness and think, why can’t they just do what pleases God? Why can’t they just honor their creator and do what they are created for? For me, it is a love relationship, I don’t need the threat of punishment to respect God. But plenty of people do. Look at the Israelites. They claimed to love God but he had to keep punishing them to keep them on-track.
I do want to say that not all the bad things that happen in the world are due to punishment from God. The things that result directly from our negative actions most likely are though. When God gave us a spirit of free will, he never said that we wouldn’t have to pay for our actions. Some people just do better, and respect God more when they know that there is a consequense to their action.
So for those people, we have the Bible riddled full of examples - my favorite is…
Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of Sin is DEATH….”
Death with no eternity in Heaven. Honestly folks… do we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? Have we asked him and the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and make us whole again? Even if you aren’t the type of personality that responds well to “threats”, this isn’t a threat, it is a promise, but the verse continues to give us hope! - “but the gift of GOD is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”
You know someone once asked me “what if the Bible isn’t real?” “what if the God you believe in, isn’t the right god?” Well I have blogged on why I should believe in the God of the Bible already, but you know my response at that time was something like this:
Lets say my God isn’t real. Lets say that Jesus was just a really great man and didn’t die for my sins and didn’t life a blameless life. Let just say that everything that I believe is a farce. I still am extremely happy, I have a wonderful life and family and I have a purpose in life. I have a peace and a joy inside me that is unexplainable in normal words. NOW- lets just assume that what I believe IS real… Lets say that there is a Heaven and a Hell- I get to go to Heaven, I get to spend an eternity on streets made of Gold and in fellowship with all these other fantastic people that have the same beliefs and convictions that I have. Where does that leave you?
It is definitely something to think about.
Another outstanding blog which I appreciate, respect, believe whole heartedly and pray that people see this, real it & get it! Love your analogy, your wisdom. It truly makes my day to seek this out first thing and get my mind, my focus on God, the center of my world! Big Thanks for this blog!
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