The Diaries of a Fruitcake in a Half Baked World!

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?               James 4:11-12

What happens when we judge someone in our mind? Are we trying to lift ourselves up because we are having low self-esteem? Is it because we are jealous of what the other has? Maybe someone that we look at seems to have it all together and we know that we don’t, so something has to be wrong with the person and we try to find it. Maybe you are sitting in a book store and in walks 4 women with their hair up, no make up and long skirts. What do you think? Do you look at them and judge them right there?

We judge because we don’t understand someone’s choices. Choices that make them look a certain way. Their choices have them where they are now and maybe you don’t like where you are and want what they have. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you judge someone because they wore that outfit to church and it is making all the men look at them. Maybe she is overweight and is sitting at a restaurant eating a big piece of cake. Maybe she is walking down the hallway of school holding another girls hand.

What about speaking evil about one another, brothers? By this verse saying “brothers”, James was talking to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Why do we speak evil about one another? Life is so hard when you walk out your front door. It is so hard to be around others who are talking about someone else and not join in.

It’s hard for me. I mean, I have turned my life around and have felt the Lord in my life, showing me the areas that I need to change to make me live more righteously (that means living right for God). I have been searching for holiness in my life. Sometimes it is confusing and sometimes it isn’t. I have made a decision to not get on facebook or email or anything on the computer until after I have given the Lord my time in the morning. I was noticing that my life was getting out of control and I didn’t know how to take hold of it. I realized that God was getting the last part of my day when He should have been getting the first.

Living my life, making the choices I make now, I  try to do it all out of love and wanting to do what the Lord convicts me of. There are some things I might not be convicted of that you are, but it doesn’t mean that you or I are less than what we should be. Everyone has their on convictions. Where one might have a conviction to stop drinking, I don’t because I don’t drink anymore. (I recently found out that I am allergic to alcohol and have immediate side effects.) I rarely did anyway because of the side effects I had, swelling immediately in my hands after the first sip. So, we all have different convictions.  The Lord deals with each of us differently but it all is going toward one goal: to be reconciled to Him.

I do have a hard time with being out in the world. I try to stay to myself and the reason is not because I don’t like people or think I am better but because I have a weakness and it’s called listening to gossip. I sometimes fall into it or I just stand or sit there. Sometimes I will start it by saying something I heard earlier and want to know if that person heard it. Even when I don’t say anything, it is just as bad because I am allowing it to enter where the Lord’s Spirit resides. After all is said and done, I walk away feeling like I failed miserably. So, I have been trying to not talk about anything that I have read that is the bad fall of someone else. The news I hear is always a conversational piece to break the ice when I’m with someone else. BUT like I said I am trying to stop that.

SO, if you are close to me or talk to me and I start saying something about what I have heard, please stop me. I would like to try and tell others to stop when they start but I just don’t know how. Have you been able to stop someone from going any further in their gossip about another person? If so, will you share with me?