soapbox

Today I started reading through facebook statuses (more like stalking) and I came across a girl I used to be friends with in high school. We haven't really seen each other after graduation but we're friends on facebook. She now lives with her boyfriend and parties a lot. It just got me thinking. This girl's mom said probably more than once while we were friends that I was a bad influence. She was even "not allowed" to come over to my house. Then I thought of another parent who said I was a bad influence. This parent utterly embarrassed me when they asked me to leave their house while the rest of my friends got to stay and spend the night because I was "untrustworthy". Their daughter lived with her boyfriend for a while and also partied a lot. And yet another parent said that she and "more adults in the church" thought I was trouble. Her daughter now has a baby with a man who she is not in a relationship with because he is in a relationship with somone else. See a trend here?

I have never in my life been drunk, smoked a single cigarette, done any drugs except ones prescribed to me, had sex, or many other things that might could qualify someone as a "bad influence". Maybe before you go and try to blame problems with you or your children on someone else you take a step back and think about whether the problem is them...or you.

Matthew 7:3-5 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

In high school I went to a club with 3 of my friends. We didn't dance with anyone, we didn't drink, and we got in legally. We didn't do anything wrong. However, we got a talking to from a couple of adults who thought that by us going we were wrong. I went to a boys room with a couple of my friends on a church trip to watch a movie when we were supposed to be in our rooms. We sat nowhere near each other. Apparently that makes someone completely untrustworhy. My "friend" told a boy something she did and HE told everyone else but then claimed I was spreading rumors about her and that makes ME bad enough for adults to think I am trouble.

It is interesting how people take a bad thing and make it define that person. They don't see all of the times I went to a bar or a party so that I could be someone's DD so they wouldn't kill themselves or others. They don't see all the mission trips I have been on to spread the Gospel. They don't see all of the small groups I have either led or been a part of. They don't see all of the high school girls that I have spent so much time praying over and praying with. Those things are completely irrelevant to them. But not to Christ. The things that I did for people to consider me a bad person were completely wiped away (if they were ever written in the first place) and are as far as the East is from the West.

Believe it or not, I am a pretty good person despite all of the haters. Sure I make mistakes but I have a God for that. I don't need people who barely know me to tell me who or what I am. That is a right that only Christ has. He will be the only one who will ever be able to define me. Ephesians 3:12 "In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." I know who I am and I believe in Christ Jesus and I live everyday by faith in Him. I will answer to Him for any missteps I make make along the way. Not to anyone of this world.

Sorry, I will get off my soapbox.