>>>"It's All Just a Game."

[*AQuietPlace*]

Originally Posted by EA

Good point.

Realizing this makes one a bit more tolerant, and a lot less apt to pronounce judgement too quickly.

In my youth, I was very legalistic. I wouldn't even let my infant daughter wear pants or shorts at home. I felt like that was an inconsistency I couldn't live with. In my mind, if pants were an abomination, age and geography shouldn't matter.

While I still believe consistency is important, I now have the benefit of years of hindsight. In short, I was truly ignorant.

It wasn't just that I expected my own family to live that way - I judged others, who didn't live like us - very harshly.

During that time, two ministers tried to help me see how faulty my theology and logic was. I rejected their efforts and wrote them off. I was sure they were soft on the message.

Look at me now. While I live much the same way, my view of God, and my attude, have changed dramatically.

I was a jerk to them. I was wrong. But there is nothing they could have done to help me because I was convinced of my "rightness." Only the gentle passage of time, combined with the love of a merciful and forgiving God, could change me.

I see so many young men zealously defending traditions they know nothing of, and it makes me cringe. I see myself in them, and I want to help.

But I have found that most are unwilling to receive what I have to say. They will have to learn the same way so many of us learned - through time, study and spiritual enlightenment.

This is the story of many of us.

I blush and cringe when I think of how judgmental I used to be. I was so arrogant at times.....I'm so thankful for God's mercy.