I'm Learning -- Slowly

Don't you just love it when you catch yourself doing the very thing you are preaching against and working so hard to overcome? No! But that's how life goes and that's how we learn.

If you've read Good News! much you already know that I'm a struggling pessimist-addict who is working hard at being positive and non-critical. That's what caused me to search out and learn what it means to Live in Truth. Some days I feel like I'm doing well at my goals and other days I find myself in the Pit of Illusion more than I want to be. And then there are the days I think I'm doing well and something brings me up short. That's what happened on the way home from California yesterday.

I was slowly making my way through the security line at the airport when I noticed a woman in the winding line beside me wearing a banner diagonally across her chest with big, pink, glittery letters that said, "Bachelorette." My immediate thought (I'm sorry to admit it!) was, "That is so weird. Why would anyone parade through an airport advertising in pink glitter their marital status?"

Obvious to you, that was an extremely negative comment. (Mind you, I didn't say it out loud; I just thought it loudly!) But it didn't even register in my mind (think 60 years of bad habit!) that I was thinking a very negative thought UNTIL about two minutes later when someone new entered the security line and seeing the Bachelorette proclaimed aloud to the woman with him, "How cute! Look at that girl with the pink banner."

I was immediately called to repentance and realized my thinking was wrong. The Lord chastens those He loves!

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: 

nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness 

unto them which are exercised thereby. 

Hebrews 12:11