December 3

NT -- 1 John 3:7-24
vs: 18
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

My tree cutter is a man I have known for 15 years. We started out with 27 monstrous pine trees on our property and Gary has cut the vast majority down. We had a few tree cutters before him but once he and his crew did one tree, I was hooked. They are clean, tidy, work hard, show up on time and leave the place neater than it was when they got here. We now have NO pine trees so I guess I will only be recommending Gary out instead of seeing him 1-2 times a year.
Gary, who is only slightly older than me, always calls me 'young lady'. I have to tell you, I am not young. Not old either but well past middle aged. Okay, I am 49 if you really must know.
With some men, 'young lady' might have been flirtatious. And maybe it was in the beginning but I grew up on a construction site and stomp all flirts into the ground. Now, when he uses it, he says it to either a)give me the bad news -- pine beetles in the tree on my neighbor's property that is hanging over my house or b)you really want to take care of this or that problem before it actually becomes a problem. It isn't a sale tactic, it is just a person who has seen a whole lot more problems with trees, roofs, and gutters than I have.

John is sort of like that with the people he is writing to. His dear children is not a put down. It is a love expression. He includes himself in the statement 'let us'. He knows that if you don't do it (and probably knows this from experience on his disciple path)you will just get out of line with God and have to be brought back. Deal with the problems early -- take the tree down now or deal with the problems later -- take the tree off the house.

One of my fellow bloggers took this same passage on a different path. I thought it interesting enough at the time she wrote it to look all the way forward to today to make note of it.

Click here to read Nancy's Noodle

Proverbs 29:1
A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed -- without remedy.

Two things about this proverb struck me today. #1 -- I have a stiff neck -- why, I am not sure but for the last couple of days I have woken up with one. It is a serious pain in the you-know-what not to mention the real pain since I suddenly turn and then the world is on fire. I am thinking about acupuncture.
#2 the many rebukes -- I have to admit, I get rebuked a lot. Not a little. A LOT. Which has led me to believe that I really, really am not very good. And it is when I get rebuked for something that I *thought* I had done well that hurts the most.
And I don't think I handle rebukes very well. I don't think it changes my behavior -- as a matter of fact, sometimes it makes my behavior quite bad.
And that tag line on the proverb -- without remedy. Dang. That scares me.

What about you? Are you as mistake prone as me? And how do you handle the rebukes?