Yes Buts and Round-Tuits

   Which excuse is your favorite: yes-but, or I just didn’t get a-round-tuit?

Did you clean the gerbil cage/closet/bedroom/garage/(fill in the blank) ______?

Yes, but…

Why haven’t you started your homework/cooking/job/(fill in the blank) ______?

I just didn’t get around to it.

   When my above average children were grade-schoolers, I used charts, stickers, bribes, threats, guilt, and reverse psychology (“Don’t bother putting away your Legos. I’ll enjoy vacuuming  them up later.”)  to urge chore completion. Their responses to responsibility-growth opportunities were about as consistent as my behavior guidance techniques.

   As a job coach of teens and young adults, I have been entertained by a myriad of creative answers to my inquiries. “Do you know what time you’re late/what the dress code is/your responsibilities?”  Yes, but, my mom is away on vacation and she forgot to tell her friend to remind me to…. “Did you finish the application/paperwork/training/requirements?”  Funny thing, I was just about to, when my dad called to say he needed my help figuring out his….

   Because my self-discipline is not the best, and God’s will is, my prayers include asking Him to redirect my conduct in obvious ways. The other day, I was thinking about some irresponsible, frustrating, they-don’t-deserve-patience, excuse-making individuals.  As fate would have it (or some cosmic coincidence), one of the people who was extra good at pushing my exasperation button, was sitting only one pew away.  In church.  At a worship service.

   The details elude me, but one of the verses pastor mentioned that Sunday was: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”  (I John 3:17)  I enjoyed marking it in my Bible with my new blue, see-through highlighter.

   

 Hmmm, I don’t remember reading that verse before. Oh shoot, is God reminding me of the Facebook post regarding all the flooding and dire conditions in Malawi right now?  You know Lord, I was just about to donate on-line and then I thought I better make sure it’s not a scam, and so as while I was researching that, there were these texts beeping in on my phone...

   Later that night, something motivated me to continue in I John, reading chapters 3 and 4.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on use, that we should be called children of God!....This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (3:1, 16)

   So many beautiful, comforting, love verses to appreciate. But the command parts, like my method of devouring popcorn, stuck in my throat:  

 “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another …If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen...”  (3:23, 4:20)

   Yikes! Yes Lord, I realize loving others is a good thing. But loving my brothers is your rule and not my choice?  You know I pray a lot for patience and wisdom to deal with get-under-my-skin types, especially if they are believers. Attitude readjustments are so difficult for me!  Lord, I will work on this, but I need your help to pursue this love rule. 

   With the scalpel of His grace-drenched word, God performs heart surgery. The Holy Spirit can turn my stiff-neck in align with His will.

^“ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be
careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36: 26-27)

  Please excuse the blog interruption.  It's time for me to sit my yes-but down, and get a round tuit !