Like ripples on a pond your life affects the people around you.
This was one of the hardest lessons for me to learn as I was growing up. There were times when I wanted to do what I wanted to do and I didn’t want to feel responsible to (or for) anyone else. I thought freedom meant no responsibility to anyone but myself.
I was young and foolish seeing only the child’s eye view.
It sounds good but it isn’t real. Like it or not, our choices affect others. Our decisions and behavior have consequences. I see people trying to ignore these facts, living as though their choices are their’s alone.
(But they never are.)
What we say and do, the type of person we choose to become, will impact those around us in a thousand different ways. Sometimes for the better; sometimes not.
One can choose one’s course, yes.
But we cannot always choose the consequences that will ride in on the coat tails of our decisions.
We have all heard the saying, “No man is an island.” but we try to be don’t we? We take our life into our own hands, choosing a course that runs roughshod over every other life around us. We claim our right to choose for ourselves, to live only for ourselves, in spite of all consequences to others.
I see it everywhere—self enthroned—Jesus Christ dethroned.
(Sadly, even in the Church.)
We make our own rules.
We decide our own course believing our life belongs only to us.
We deny Scripture trampling it under our feet, but at what cost to ourselves, and those who watch our lives?
Foolishly, we believe we must answer to no one but ourselves?
Never.
…RIPPLES
There have been times you didn’t like this very much, being in My hands.
Oh, you like it fine when I use My hand to give you what you want. But, when I close My hand. You really struggle with that one.
(Everybody does.)
Child, I would have you go far beyond this business of getting, or not getting, what you want. You are far more complex than that.
(And, so am I.)
When I say, “… your times are in My hands.” I don’t just refer to people, places, and things. The tangible is easy to fix your eyes upon, but look deeper. Your times are made up of much more than that!
What about, your gifts? Your calling? Your dreams? Your spirit-man? Your tragedies? Are not all these things in My hands as well? And if you could take them out of My hands? Which ones would you remove? You see through the glass darkly. You do not always see what I AM doing, or where I AM going.
Do you?
Your life, and the events of your life, are like ripples made upon the water. The initial splash may be very small, but if you are patient and step back and watch, you will see those ripples growing in wider and wider circles, encompassing more and more.
To take your life back. To say, “It is mine and affects only me.” is just foolish rubbish.
(And you know it.)
Everything… every… thing… you do, or say, will eventually impact someone else, someday, somewhere.
(Selah, that!)
“… my times are in your hands.” Psalms 31:15
Women With Destiny 