Thursday, June 15, 2006

Where do the good and the bad come from?

In light of my recent posts on feeling like a failure and all the beating up of ourselves I've been reading on other blogs, I thought you might like to think about this quote I read today from Andy Stanley's book, Since Nobody's Perfect. . .How Good is Good Enough?

"Your conscience is an interesting thing. It condemns you when you do bad, but it doesn't do much in the way of assuring you when you do well."

How true is that?!

It reminds me of a conversation I had once with some friends about parenting. I was feeling like I had been doing a bad job of being a mother.

"Why?" my friend asked.

"I see all these negative traits in my kids that I know came from me."

To which my wise friend asked, "What would you need to see in your kids to think you did a good job?"

I had to think about that for a long time, at least a week. I finally decided that I would never attribute all the good traits in my kids to me. Anything good in them had to come from God.

I must think the same way of myself. Anything bad in me is me. Anything good in me is God. Is that fair? I don't know, but I think it's healthy, spiritually speaking. It keeps me in my proper place.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So true. It doesn't seem like fun, but it gives us hope since we don't do too well when we try to take over. :) Great thoughts as always.