It's a good thing I'm not God...

I realized over the past two weeks that it is a really good thing that I'm not God. I think we all have our moments where we would like the opportunity to be God but no matter how hard we try, we fall short of completely controlling the situations we find ourselves in. It never fails to amaze me how much more God can make of a situation than we can. A couple of weekends ago, I took a lot of high schoolers on retreat; the weekend had a lot of ups and downs, but the downs were pretty low. I left that weekend not feeling revitalized for ministry like I normally do when I come off of retreat. I had to meet with parents over their children's indiscretions and talk about consequences. It's never an easy thing to have to explain to parents where their child has fallen short. I always have to remind myself that this is their pride and joy we're talking about when we talk about their child. This is a lot like God, I'm sure in the way He looks at us. We fall short a lot, and even when we do, He still looks at us as His pride and joy, even though we disappoint him. But this brings me to my point about it being a good thing I'm not God. See, I forget that the pride and joy of someone else needs to be dwelt with gently, and lovingly. I fall short of seeing that in every situation, and I think that we all do with certain things...whether it be not gossiping about someone, making snap judgements about people or not loving people the way we should. When we deal with other people, no matter who they are or how they treat us, we need to look at that person as the pride and joy of our Father...who looks at them the same way He looks at us...with love! My two cents today is this: Look at people with fresh eyes...look at them the way God looks at them, as His pride and joy. That's also how He looks at you. Always!