In Love and War

"Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals."

In the recent weeks, I've seen a lot of nonsense, and I use the word nonsense in place of a number of bad words that I'm trying to refrain from saying. Children verbally attacking their father publicly, adults sticking their noses so high in the air that they can't see their own footsteps trampling over their children, and family members showing no care to each other.

What does it all come down to? Those noses need to come down, the children need to listen to their father, and the family members should take a couple Sunday school lessons on what love actually is.

First of all, your father, hands down, knows better than you do. He sees everything from a point of view that is much wiser and much wider than your viewpoint. In addition to that, he loves you beyond belief and more than himself, and therefore should be trusted to do according to YOUR best interests.

At some point in your life, you become old enough to have your own opinion and state that opinion, to get the benefit of your father's wisdom as you make larger decisions in life. However, when this decision affects his house, his family, his children, you are no longer the one making the decision - he is. You can state your input and he will listen and try to accommodate, but it is the true test of a loving child, to simply obey and move on.

If you're still reading this, an organized venting of mine, I want you to physically look up - stick your nose in the air and see what happens when you look forward... can you see anything clearly? I don't know about you, but my eyes cross, and not only do I look ridiculous, but everything I'm seeing is over exaggerated. There's two television sets when in reality, there's only one lonely set chilling on the stand.

Pride is not something to laugh at. You only see yourself and what you want, being stubborn in your own way without pausing to see that the world does not and will not revolve around you. You're also hurting other people in the process. No matter how many times we deny it, there are others around us and our actions affect them. Being stubborn or, in my opinion, intentionally blind, leads to a lot of chaos.

The quote above really seems to fit with the situation though. If people didn't feel so insecure about themselves, they wouldn't push their agenda on others, creating an atmosphere of tension and hostility.

When I am in charge of some sort of activity at work, and the next year someone else becomes in charge of it due to management choices, and that person needs help, I am going to help them because I know how to do it. That's the nice, humble way of dealing with the situation, even if I don't especially like it.

The prideful and stupid way of dealing with it is by attempting to sabotage the activity by not helping that person. What you don't realize by sticking your nose in the air, is that life goes on without you. The world still turns, the clock still ticks, and you're left standing alone at the end of the day with nothing to show for it.

"If everyone cared, and swallowed their pride, we'd see the day, when no body died."
I love this song (If Everyone Cared by Nickelback)because it really shows how things would be different if people stopped focusing on themselves all the time. Yes, people might not die, although it is possible, but maybe you've killed their spirit. Do you want to be responsible for someone's death?

And what's another term that refers to how much we care? LOVE!!! "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own..." (1 Cor. 13: 4-5) This verse from the Bible is so well known, and yet, no one seems to really know it.

If we just loved each other, above ourselves -just sacrificed our egos once in a while, none of these things would happen. And now I leave you with another quote to ponder:

"As soon as sacrifice becomes a duty and necessity to mankind, I see no limit to
the horizon which opens before him."