Monday, January 19, 2009

Question of the Day

While making a searching a fearless moral inventory of myself this morning, I ran across this question:

How do I behave in ways I would not tolerate from others? What makes me think it is okay for me to act this way?

I laughed out loud.
And then I had to get serious.

I had just completed a list of behaviors that I find unacceptable, then a list of behaviors that I find irritating. On these two lists were things like lying, abuse, not getting help for abuse (especially abuse of children), screaming, controlling, hateful words, selfish....

Whoa. I had to stop.

Why do I sometimes think it is okay for me to do some of those things? My answer to myself, for now, was, "I have no idea - how stupid!"

Just a thought to ponder.

I hope it leads to an answer, and then an end to this sort of ridiculous behavior!

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:1-5

4 comments:

pam said...

WOW, that is a question.

The Dementia Nurse said...

Behaviors I find unacceptable and behaviors I find irritating - that's a starting point for an inventory I've never heard before. I'll have to give this some serious thought!

Paula V said...

A great question for us all to ponder. I can't say that I have an answer for myself either, more than I don't know. It would require ponder and prayer for us to find a deep true answer, huh?

pam said...

check out my Monday post for some info about this Thursday's ABC's of Word