day 27: commendable

"And notice this: God is not only praised by praising him directly for who he is and for his works in nature, but he is praised when we commend others, for they too are his workmanship."

it's easy to see the "wrong" in a person because we are constantly told of the "right" standard, how to live to the "right" standard, and how "wrong" people ruin the "good" standard. 

jesus came not for the healthy, but for the sick. He sought to mend the broken, not to add on to what is already complete. He saw people as the product of the wonderful Maker, and not the derivative leftovers of sinful nature. 

and in the same way God calls us to be "like Christ," i am called to see and love others the same way God does to me. 

i want to be encouraged, but to do that you must encourage others. encourage them for what God is doing in their lives, and in that way there is no idolatry, only praise. 

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they talk so much about you, and I did the same: how hypocritical, how vulgar, and how angry you are. how everything you do is somehow negated by the type of person you are. how for some reason, the kingdom of God cant help you and you cant help, but i look back and how could we say such things about one another? i am not giving up on you, more importantly, God is not giving up on you and has never given up on you. they might be wrong about who you really are, they might be right about who you really are, but none of that matters because Jesus will never cast the stone upon you, and now I understand and neither will I. how can i judge another when God has not condemned me for who I am? you know that you yourself are the captain of your ship, and i am just shouting from the shore, so truly whatever change people want from you is going to come from your choices alone. but God is an ocean, and He will guide your ship in the way His current moves and He will reveal Himself to you again and again in hopes that people like us will one day understand. to forgive and to love is to wish nothing but the best, and I wish you nothing but the best, because that is all we can do for one another, and that's all that matters.