Build Each Other

 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11.  Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. Ephesians 4:29.    

As I thought about some of my life's stories I realize there are some stories I would like to bury. Some chapters of my life I would like to erase. At __ty eight years of and having deen divorced 4 times in 11 years I do have a lot of stories to tell. Not all of them are good. The other side of those stories is also an image-bearer of Christ. God loves them as much as he loves me. I don't think all of my stories I could tell encourage or build up others. I do have some stories where I did the right thing. But I probably have as many that their only value may be shock value, like most of the news we hear today, the headline is shocking but the story is lacking in doing any good.  I posted something on Facebook one day and my daughter asked for what reason did I post that? I went back and looked at it and deleted the post and the only thing I could come up with was it was shocking. It didn't do anyone any good.  But I have a story wherein the midst of great temptation I'd did the right thing and if I had made a different decision I may have a sadder story to tell.  I took my son to work one morning at about 5 AM, it was still dark outside.  I saw two ladies standing on a street corner trying to hitch a ride. I could tell they were drunk and decided if they were still there on my way home I would give them a ride home before they got hurt. There were still there and I did offer them a ride home and they did accept. They were drunk, they were two sisters that had been celebrating one of their birthdays. The sister in the front seat gave me directions and we took her sister home first. Then she directed me to her house and invited me in. She wanted to go to bed with me and I refused. For one she was drunk and really didn't know what she was doing. I was a Christian and wanted to be obedient to my God. She was pretty which made it more difficult. But I didn't give in to the temptation.  But what if I had made the opposite decision and gave in to the temptation that day? Now that the decision is history, I could have a totally different story to tell. I don't know if she was married, I could have broken up a home. A child could have been born out of wedlock that I would know nothing about and perhaps raised without a father. Our decisions become our history after the fact and give us the stories of our life. Are they good stories or stories we wish we could erase? I have both kinds of stories in my history. Do my stories build up or tear down? We need men of integrity in our land today. We need men that will do the right thing.  I am thankful for grace and mercy. God bless. LVZ.