The Plumbline

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him . (2 Corinthians 3:16-18) Face-to-face conversation seems to be a thing we just don't engage in as much as we did in times long gone by. I come from the era when mom's stood at the back fence or mailbox, passing the time of day while watching wee ones engage in play. Today's electronic age has helped us to "connect" with each other via all kinds of social media. We text, IM, post, tweet, ...

If you are not a friend to yourself, it shows in the little things you neglect and are quite critical of in yourself.  When you are not a "fan" of who or what you are, you have a tendency to be quite "down" on whatever character flaw it is that has caught your attention at that moment.  In fact, you see that flaw in yourself, and then the contradictory "perfection" in someone else.  You might even see that same "flaw" in another, but you are more likely to just look at how someone else "has it all together" in that area and then be even more "down" on yourself because of your perceived "flaw".  According to scripture, you can tell when you are a "friend to yourself" by how well you are pursuing the things in life which make you wise.  When you apply yourself to wisdom, there is little time to be "down" on the stuff which you get hung up on when all you are doing is looking at your reflection in a...