Acceptance and Manipulation

[Dr. Shane]

Many people have an idea of what life should be like.  We have ideas about how our home should be - how our spouse and children should behave.  We have an idea of how the traffic should be - how others drivers should behave.  We have ideas of how our job should be - how our boss, coworkers and customers should behave.  We have an idea of how our church should be - how the pastors, elders and other members should behave.  We have a picture of how things should be.

But what happens?  People do not act as they should,,,, at least not the way we think they should.  So, how do we react to others messing with our idealized idea of how life should be?  This is where many of us differ.  Some of us simply accept things as they are and let God take care of it.  Others try to manipulate others to change their behavior because they believe that somehow, if they do everything right, they can achieve this ideal life that they picture it should be.

When we really dig into the Bible we quickly realize the world is not the way it should be.  Life is difficult.  As we grow closer to God, we realize that we are not the way we should be.  Our ideal life is probably not the life God would even desire for us.  Growing closer to God makes us more humble and less willing to manipulate others to do something the way we thing it needs to be done.