Recently, a dear author friend received an email about an image on the cover of one of her books. Apparently, this reader was offended by the strip of bare skin, revealed on the cover,between the woman's blouse and her jeans.
I got out the book, took off my glasses, held the book up to my nose, and couldn't for the life of me see enough skin to notice, let alone be offended by. I was mystified.
Now, I felt the author was gracious, but she did find humor in the situation. And she posted the incident on her blog.
THEN, she received either a blog comment or email about how "harshly she dealt with the one who had been offended." So, now she's twisted herself into a knot over the entire matter, which was kind of silly to begin with.
If we as believers, spend our entire lives apologizing and making amends to those we offend unintentionally...then excuse me from everything, because my calendar's FULL with a capital F.
I'm always accidentally stepping on someone's toes somewhere. And sometimes, quite frankly, people...we are far too easily offended.
When an imaginary strip of bare belly skin trips someone up who Didn't Even Have To Buy The Book If It Bothered Her to the point she chastises the author and calls into question her relationship with God...
It's time to lighten up!
Believe me, I was offended by a much bigger issue recently, and satan had me in his clutches over it. And the offense wasn't worth the energy I gave it. I'm not saying it wasn't an offense...I'm saying It. Wasn't. Worth. It.
We're all about the gospel, people. Not about policing morality, pushing our views, or keeping one another in line. That's God's job. And we need to get back to ours.
Lord, help me learn from my OWN words, and stop wasting time with my feelings and offenses...and please help me stop being offensive...on accident, anyway:-)
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Deena
2 comments:
There is a song now by CC that says we must let God change the heart before we worry about the way they are dressed.
I say that only because we are too focused on the outside perceptions and there are a whole lot more important things.
And if someone is going to focus on the outside--it makes me wonder about their inside. Something about the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts.
We also must watch that God is not trying to reveal a tendency toward people pleasing to us when we are overly distraught about peoples views about us or our lives.
Sometimes we just have to let it go.
Something that God has been teaching me a lot about the last few years.
I believe that we need to worry about ourselves, not others so much. Spend our energy on being who Christ wants ME to be, not on making others conform to who I believe they should be/I want them to be. If we all did that the world would be a better place . . . .
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