Edify

"TOP TEN THINGS
TO DO WITH YOUR NOSE
WHEN YOU’RE BORED”

#10  Look down it at somebody (Pride)
#9    Poke it in someone else’s business (Strife/Dissension)
#8    Snoop around with it (Nosey / Gossip)
#7    Get it out of joint (Anger)
#6    Cut it off to spite your face (Bitterness)
#5    Pay through it (Materialism)
#4    Find something right under it (Love / Salvation)
#3    See past it (Eternity / Hope)
#2    Keep it clean (Humility / Obedience)

AND THE NUMBER ONE THING TO DO WITH YOUR NOSE

#1    Get it stuck in a book (The Bible!)

This morning my friend RaChelle Brookens posted this list on Facebook and it really gave me reason to pause.  It’s such a great black and white list of all that God would have us do and not do.  It’s would almost make a great modern day Ten Commandments list…because if we did these things it would make it easier to actually follow the law of the original Ten Commandments given by God.  The first 6 are the “shalt nots”…and, oh, how much peace and contentment we could find in our lives if we could do these.  The first five have to do with our relationships with others.  Why do we tend to look for the worst in others?  Are we really so insecure that we have to put others down to lift ourselves up?  When you find yourself talking about another person, are you sharing “good news” that builds them up and builds up the person listening, or are you busy trash talking and stirring up discontentment and strife?  And when someone talks to you and shares negative information, do you have the courage to say, “I’m not interested in hearing anything negative about that person.  I’ll say a prayer for them and for you too.” 

The sixth one (#5) really strikes home in this day and age.  So many have dug themselves into a hole with their desire for “stuff” that really doesn’t make their life richer, and now that we’re in an economic tailspin they wish they had the money back and that they’d made better financial decisions.  The world (and satan…the true enemy) tease and tempt and entice day in and day out trying to trap us into desiring things that “look” good (satan’s a deceiver) but are absolutely not God’s best for us.  Learning to discern God’s good and perfect will for our lives takes thought and prayer and delayed gratification.  God’s best is worth waiting for.  I need to learn this lesson…and learn it fast.  I hate that I know what’s right and I continue to do what’s wrong.  I think Paul wrote about that once.

Numbers 4-1 are what we should be busy doing.  There’s such value in these four points.  If we’re busy loving others, keeping our focus on God and His eternal plans for us, obeying Him and staying in His Word, there’s not a lot of time for the other problems to occur.  I love how this list helps us to focus on the activities that truly have eternal value.  I’m going to print this list up and keep it in a prominent place as a reminder that I have better things to do than talk about others.

I’ve also recently been convinced that I need to stop reading about the problems of others…and there’s certainly a lot of access to this information.  We’ve become a society that makes money off the hurts of others…tabloids…tabloid television… gossip columns in newspapers and on the Internet.  We need to start spouting positive, uplifting, edifying information to make up for all the garbage that abounds in this world.

So that’s my two cents worth of thinking this morning.  Two grandsons are now crying and it’s time for gammy to help heal the hurts … even children who don’t talk yet know how to irritate each other.  Let me go help them learn to edify and build each other up.