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| San Diego, California |
One of the key
ingredients to a healthy life are learning from those who came before us. The
most obvious and easily accessible (for those who have a traditional upbringing
of both parents being around) are their father and mother. Regardless of
circumstance, fathers have an incredible impact on their children, for better
or worse. It is my belief that all parents do the best they can with where they
are in life. (Think about it fully before freaking out on me.) We must listen to our parents and take their advice, place our own
perspective on it, and hopefully obey them because they give good advice. I would say that 99% of the time if
I had listened to my father's advice it would have turned out better for me than
not. However, I didn't always do that, unfortunately for myself and it would
end in me crying out to God seeking saving. Thankfully, God always hears the
cries of His children and will give us opportunities to learn from our
mistakes. We all face choices every day, whether we will choose to work hard at
something or be a sluggard. We can guard our mouths and use our tongue in a way
that is uplifting or we can tear others down without filtering our thoughts and
speak wildly. Clearly, there is a wise way to live and a foolish way. Why do we
seldom choose wisely when we are young? Why can't we listen to those who came
before us and heed their warnings? Because we believe we are better, smarter,
and can handle everything on our own - we know what is best for us! (Spoiler:
We don't.) Speaking as a 27-year-old, I can tell you right now that I almost
always think I know what is right, true, or best for me. I go into situations
believing I can handle them without anyone else's assistance or help, then it
blows up in my face and I seek help from others. I attempt to be righteous but
then I build up a false sense of righteousness and believe I can do whatever I
want and I will be able to breeze through the challenges of lust, temptations,
etc. and then I fall into sin. We cannot white-knuckle our way through sins that are addictive. We must seek counseling from others who can help us change the way we think (this is the only way I escaped from the bondage of pornography and to this day I am free from it). This is the problem, we think we can handle
these situations without any practice or thinking ahead. We believe that we
alone can handle the temptation, even though our history should tell us otherwise,
we continue to fall again and again. We pretend we are something we aren't,
rich, talented at something, etc. and then the truth shows that we actually
aren't and we were pretending. This is a false sense of success that doesn't
help us in life but only hurts us in the long run. God placed in our hands His
word through many meek individuals who were just like us, wandering the desert
and God found them and showed them His way. He wants what is best for us and
what is best in Him. He designed every atom that dwells in all of existence and
He put it into motion, naturally, He is the way, the truth, and the life,
therefore it makes sense that no one can go before God except through Christ,
we are not worthy. We are sinners
through and through. Disaster follows us wherever we tread and most things
touched by us die. Thankfully, we have a Lord and Savior who can show us the
best way for us to live. Unfortunately, we always want more. We are not
satisfied with what God has given us, we want what others have until we get it, and then we want more than that. This is a natural desire inside of us and can be
used for good if we get our perspective right. The perspective of knowing that we
were not made for this world and we will never be truly satisfied. We were made
for the Kingdom of Heaven that is without blemish or sin, we are eternal beings
in a time-constrained universe, we will never feel at home. These are good
things! We don't have to take to heart all the horrible things that betray us
here on earth. The fallow ground we stand upon is swept away through injustice
and all that is will be gone in time. How should we handle this? With joy!
Thankfully we are not meant to live eternity in pain, we will be cleansed and
made perfect in Him. While we wait for that glorious day we should praise Him
with our tongues, honor Him with our bodies, and seek His face with our eyes,
not the momentary pleasures that this world wants for us. Now, we can have a
lot of fun while on earth and experience a lot of joy, there are great things
and should be done! God gave us 10 commandments to follow through
Moses, we would be wise to adhere to them as best we can. Don't you think the
author of joy has some idea of what we would enjoy? We will never be perfect at
this while we are in these bodies filled with shame and regret, but we can show
His love for us by drawing close to Him in times of trouble and seeking
humility in all things.
Dear Lord, give me the strength to return to you every day. My mind and heart stray from you as I have a very strict regimen of things that take a long time to perform. There is a lot of pain involved in these processes and they distract me from you. Please give me the ability to return to your word and type it out as I have done above this every day. I see the path you want for me clearly, but I do not see the beginning of it. Show me the way. Amen.
All images © 2015 - 2021 Jordan Tackett
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