What in the world?
What has happened to the common graces we learned as children? You remember those words like “please, may I help you, thank you, and pardon me.” It seems we have learned new graces where we resolve disagreements with hateful words, violence, and weapons. One of the most appalling recent stories is about a young couple that was charged with murder because “they forgot to feed their baby?” And the numerous other stories about the murder of children and other family members for ridiculous reasons; like they disagreed with me, or they were in my way or this is my body?
The new mantra seems to be “What about me, what about me?”
Somehow the bottom seems to have dropped out of kindness, concern for others, and just genuine love. Of course, this doesn’t identify the masses, but the masses don’t often appear in the news for their benevolent actions.
Life has always challenged us. Challenges are how we learn. But I believe there is hope for our world and the world we leave for our children. However, the change must begin in each of us as we put our hope in Jesus Christ. This world belongs to Him and He has promised to keep us in perfect peace if we keep our minds on Him [“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” Isaiah 26:3 NLT]. Let’s challenge ourselves with the words of this verse from Scripture and watch how God works on our behalf as we reach out in prayer to Him in this changing world.
Remember that challenges are how we learn.
Phyllis Andrews 5/9/22
