TGIF!

Well this Friday might as well have been a Monday..... geez I'm glad this day is mostly over. But it's not over yet.... a family dinner is still on the schedule, so let's hope that goes over without any drama. Now before you read this, just remember that these are MY opinions. You may have a different one, and that's ok. I'm not of the logic that you have to agree with me, but don't get your panties in a wad if you don't. :-) I've been thinking a lot about some situations that have occurred in our "not-so-Mayberry" little town. And here's what I've decided. Does the devil exist? Yes, absolutely. If we believe in God and Heaven, then we must also believe in the devil and Hell. However, as I've mentioned before, I do not believe that God decides what I eat or wear out of the house today. He gave us all brains to use on a daily basis to make those simple decisions that we have to make every day. Does He guide us and help us when we ask for it? Yep. But He does not dictate every decision I make. I know I should base my major decisions on what would glorify God, but I'm sorry - I don't think God really cares whether I wear blue jeans or shorts today, so I'm not going to stop and ask "Would this glorify God?" Maybe that makes me a bad Christian, but I'm just not doing that. So by that same rationale, the devil doesn't have a hand in every POOR decision that I make either. If I eat something that makes me sick, I don't blame the devil. If I say something hurtful to my husband or friend, I don't blame the devil. I blame myself for not thinking and for not choosing more wisely. THEREFORE: anyone who decides to cheat on and/or lie to their spouse repeatedly, does NOT get a "get out of jail FREE" card if they merely blame it on the devil.... I'm just sorry. It doesn't work that way. It means THEY made a POOR choice and should have made better decisions. And THEY are 100% to blame - not the devil, not lack of spiritual focus, not the other spouse - just them. They want to blame the devil so they don't have to take responsibility for their actions, and that is cowardly. A true Christian person would not be so quick to displace the blame. And a true Christian person wouldn't have waited until they got CAUGHT to 'fess up. Anyone who is truly remorseful for such actions would never let it continue for as long as it did. I can understand someone who may have been unfaithful one time, confesses to their spouse and tries to work it out. I might be willing to do the same in an "Oops, I screwed up" situation. But if Robert Allen ever walked in and told me (after being caught red-handed) that he had been having multiple affairs for an extended amount of time, you would find his personal belongings in my front yard, on fire. And for all those people out there who say "well you never know what you'd do until you're in that situation." Well, hell yes I do. And you'll need to call the fire truck. I wouldn't think twice about getting rid of a lying, cheating husband. And the same goes for him. If I ever did that to him, he wouldn't put up with it any more than I would. No spouse deserves to be treated that way. The old saying is true: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Anyone who puts up with, and tries to "work it out" with a spouse who is that deceitful is just setting themselves up for disappointment in the future. You cannot truly love someone if you'd do something like that to them. And if you don't truly love them, then just let them go and be happy somewhere else.
And now let me reiterate my other discovery, which I previously stated, that being forced into a confession is not truly being sorry for something. The only reason that the other situation in our town "apologized" was because he got CAUGHT. Plain and simple. And that is not true remorse. Yeah, he's sorry he got caught! I would be too! But if he had been truly sorry, the truth would have been told long ago, and the situations would have never presented themselves again. Recovering alcoholics do not work in bars, whether they've been to rehab or not. And that's all I'll say about that.