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Friday, July 18, 2014

Paint Party Friday: Learn From Me!

"I desire MERCY, not sacrifice."
Matthew 12:7

It's hard to balance disciplining and mercy
when it comes to children, employees,
students, people who've done wrong,
because we always want to teach a
lesson about consequences of their actions.

If they make a mistake, or are dishonest,
we want to mete out a justifiable punishment.
I sometimes fear if I'm too soft,
they won't learn the lesson 
and they'll do it again.
But how about God?

 "The wages of sin is death," (Romans 6:3)
shows death is what we deserve
for sinning!
And yet the verse continues,
"but the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord."
That is pure mercy, pure grace,
and pure sacrifice for us!

And so when deciding on the consequence,
it is always best to temper it with mercy,
to bear witness to the truth of
God's own love and unbelievable mercy!

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest. 
Take my yoke upon you and LEARN from me... 
And you will find rest for yourselves..." Matthew 11:28-30

Sometimes I picture God 
shaking His head in frustration. 
He has already given us His 'instruction manual', 
how to live so that we will have peace 
in the midst of confusion, 
joy in spite of sadness and pain, 
wholeness and strength 
in spite of circumstances around us 
 trying to destroy what we have. 
Jesus says LEARN from me. 
Listen to me, follow me. 
Instead we want to live it, "My way!"

Imagine if we didn't know how to drive 
and we bought a really nice car and 
didn't read the manual that the 
manufacturers carefully put together 
so that the car would run at its optimum. 
Could we get far using it? Through trial and error?

That's what we do with our lives when we 
don't read our instruction manual, the Bible! 
I think when we get to Heaven and see 
our 'manufacturer' face to face and talk to Him, 
we're going to say, "If only I took You more seriously! 
It would have saved me a lot of pain and frustration!"


Linking with

So many WONDERFUL blogfriends 
to discover here!

Thank you for dropping by!
You are appreciated!

Patsy

6 comments:

  1. I love this, you are invited to share this with Feline Art Friday:
    http://kittypartay.blogspot.com/2014/07/feline-art-friday-5.html

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  2. Beautiful and inspirational work, Patsy.

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  3. My goodness--how inspiring. I love your unusual work. It is lovely.

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  4. Beautiful post - as believers we are not exempt from trying to do it "our" way. I think you did a beautiful job on both painted girls - the hair on the first one is gorgeous and I love that perspective and the skin tones and light and shadow on the 2nd one.

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  5. So true. We do need to read our instruction manual!

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  6. Very pretty art and dealing with kids is a fine line.
    Nicole/Beadwright

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I am so glad you dropped by! You are a blessing!
:^) Patsy