Good Advice

It was BEAUTIFUL weather yesterday – and today, too for that matter. Perfect for painting the church. But without the the scaffolding that wasn’t going to happen and the scaffolding was still up at the camp.

So we made an unexpected run to the Aomori Christian Center. And stayed overnight. And today while the men cut trees, we women talked and talked.

The sun shone in, and the fire burned gently. And sometimes we had 5 or 6 kids (the neighbor girl was there, too) hanging about and sometimes we sat in the quiet and went on talking.

And we concluded that its really true….  “there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.”    Ecclesiastes 7:20

And people like to complain about other people. They are not kind. And its hard to be the target of their criticism.

But people don’t always mean what they say. Or perhaps they do mean what they say. But that doesn’t mean they will still feel the same way next year – nor even in a few months. They might not even feel that way next week.

So how does one keep from taking offense.?

I like the Teacher’s advice:  “Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you-- for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others.” Ecclesiastes 7:21-22

Can’t get much better advice. But neither of us are very good at it, yet.