Skip to main content

Are You Correctable?


Long before the delete button on the keyboard there was a liquid miracle worker called White-Out. Similar to what's seen in the photo above, this magical formula was able to right all of the wrongs on our school papers, work papers, and more. It came in a little bottle about the size of nail polish and was painted on with the same type of brush. I admit, I did use it to paint my nails a time or two. I also used it to change the grade on my report card when I was in high school.

Sorry, mom, if you're reading this.

My school used White-Out on report cards all the time. What was to keep me from doing the same? I neatly covered over the bad grade and changed it to one a little better. Mom signed off on the report card and I changed the grade back when I turned it in.

Oh, the good old days...

But it didn't change anything. The grade was still the same. Unfortunately we can be the same way in our walk with Christ. Someone comes along and speaks truth into our lives that we don't want to hear. We can respond in several ways. My friends tell me I've the habit of saying what everyone else is thinking. That may be true, I always address the elephant in the room, but why not? Let's take care of it and move on. I mean, he's taking up so much space, eating all of the food, making a mess, and he stinks.

Years ago we had a lady in our youth group who went to a conference. While there she answered a very specific altar call. Jessie ran to the front of the room shouting, "That's me! That's me!" and the speaker stopped talking, looked at her, and with God wisdom said, "Yes, it is you," and publicly prayed for her. Jessie came home and stood in front of the church to share her testimony.

"I've been running from the call of God. He's called me to be a missionary and I've known it for years, the speaker was talking directly to me during the altar call and his spirit recognized that in me when I went to the altar." She then laid plans for getting into Bible college and training to be a missionary. Her parents stood by her side while the church prayed over her. It was beautiful.

Several months later I learned that Jessie dropped out of college. I approached her to discuss why. "I got it wrong," she said. "That wasn't for me, I'm not called to the mission field."

I was aghast. And I didn't believe one word she said.

"No Jessie, you didn't get it wrong. You are called to the mission field. You've got it wrong right now and you're still running from God and His call on your life."

Jessie went to her parents and complained about what I'd told her and this pastor's wife got in trouble for sharing the truth. Instead of encouraging Jessie to make things right with the Lord, they made things right with her anxieties. 

A similar situation happened a few years later and I had another conversation, this time with an adult friend who listened. This friend is now in charge of a national ministry and has impacted more lives than I could ever imagine touching. He took my words to heart, humbled himself, and allowed God to lead him into the unknown.

Sometimes the correction isn't as life-altering as the above examples. Sometimes it's meant to open our eyes to something in our lives that is hindering us. Roger continually shares Facebook posts that are risque pictures that point out sin visually. Some of these pictures are pornographic in nature and when Roger was approached about this he simply said, "People need to know that it's sin." Roger blocked the person trying to speak wisdom into his life and continued on as if nothing had happened.

We need to take the correction of others, especially those in leadership areas of our lives. Allow them to speak the truth into us. Allow their wisdom and experience to guide us into maturity. Ignoring it is like putting White-Out over it and hoping no one ever sees the problem underneath. It isn't a permanent fix. Don't allow the elephant in the room to blur your vision when you try to look in the mirror. Sometimes those around us can see what we can't, and sometimes we need to have the humility to listen and act on what they tell us. 

Proverbs 11:2 sums it up, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." (NIV) 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Front Row Seat

  If you've been around me any length of time, you'll know I love having a front row seat when possible. Church. Concerts. Comedy shows. Auctions. I want to be front and center, where the action is, so I don't get distracted and miss something. I want to be part of the event and front is where it's at.  Lately I've had a front row seat to some things that I wish I could unsee. My mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis and the last year and a half of watching her slow and steady decline into a world of unknowns has taken a toll.  I tend to hold every emotion inside. Always have. I've learned -these past fifteen months or so- that this is bad for my health. Stress levels are impacting how I feel. Palpitations, and a diagnosis of "harmless" PACs, have left me trying to manage this stress. It's gotten easier but, I'll admit, I still have things shoved down inside. And then along came CDH. A diagnosis I'd not heard of before it was given to...

Kitchen floor woes

I spent a better part of this afternoon lamenting how much I hate my kitchen floor. It puzzles me as to why anyone would install such flooring. Not only is it ugly, but also impractical. It also puzzles me as to why, after nearly nine years in this house, I still have this floor. Well. It doesn't puzzle me that much ($$$). I clean it only once a year.  Don't judge,  I Swiffer and spot clean in between. And I have a dog who does her share of, ahem , cleaning it.  But see all of those deep grout lines? Scrubbing around each brick tile and into those lines is beastly. It's much harder than getting foundation out of the lines on my face. Douse with cleaner. Scrub with rough sponge. Wipe with cloth rag. Rinse with rag. Rinse again in between each brick tile until it's done. Roughly two hours of scrubbing and rinsing. Similar process to removing makeup, but much more labor intensive.  Yes, I could use a mop but scrubbing...

Sweet Zoey

 Zoey - August 10, 2020 When we found her I didn't realize I needed her. Sure, she needed us, she was living in woods, alone, surviving on whatever she could find. She was nine months old, the vet later told me when I took her in for a check-up, still unsure I wanted to keep this undernourished mutt. We'd been on vacation in southwest Missouri, near the Arkansas border, in the middle of the woods. I was on the porch when I saw her trotting down the dirt road. A little brown dog. I whistled and she stopped to look at me from across the lawn. Then she continued on her way. Later that night, the family was watching a movie we'd brought (no cable service out there!) and suddenly this furry face popped up in the window, scaring my husband out of his seat. We fed her some people food and went to bed.  She was still there in the morning. We asked around and no one knew where she came from. We fed her some more and she stayed. The next day we went and bought some dog food, f...