• In today’s divided America, when confronted by people on the other side, remember that they are fellow human humans with passions and feelings like you.
• Folks on both sides of the debate can get self-righteous and downright mean when faced with opposition.  
• Both sides feel abused, maligned, picked on…if you listen to the comments and complaints, they have much the same complaints about the other side.
• Both sides usually feel they are completely right, and that the other side couldn’t be more wrong.
• Sometimes you have to accept that certain people are not going to like you for their own reasons, and you won’t be able to change that.
• There are those on both sides who recognize that you don’t have to agree with someone to still like and respect them.   Those people are few and far in-between.  
• Most of the time, both sides have some very heart-felt reasons for their stance.  
• Arguing, name-calling, back-biting, anger:   None of these things help either side, ever.
• If you can’t talk to the other side of the coin without the above mentioned arguing, name-calling, anger, etc., walking away is the best thing you can do.
• No one can live a perfect life…don’t take it too personally when you’re called a hypocrite by people on the other side.  They are making mistakes and bad choices, too.   Everyone does, no one is exempt.
• If, at some point, you realize you are wrong, say you’re wrong.
• Don’t compromise your convictions to end harassment. Just walk away. If you know you’re right, you don’t have to defend yourself against others who would belittle you for your principles.   You won’t change them, anyway.
• No matter how right you are, or even how much you try to stay neutral, there are those who will find fault with you, who will talk about you, and who won’t treat you the way they’d like to be treated.   Don’t let another’s bad behavior steal your peace.
• One last thing a friend said yesterday, something her mother told her: You should always speak the truth, but not all truth needs to be spoken. Great words of wisdom.

Photos from the Amish community in Ethridge, Tenneessee

With today’s technology, information is at our fingertips.  I can easily read several translations of Bible passages I am studying.  And I Google words…like prodigal.  Since childhood, I thought the prodigal son was the one who ran away.  Turns out, he didn’t just run away.  He was wasteful, reckless, and uncontrolled.  

Luke 15:17 tells us the prodigal son “came to himself” while lusting after the pig’s food and he remembered that the hired hands in his dad’s house ate a lot better than he had been eating. 

I’m still waiting for the day I come to myself.  Not only am I prone to be prodigal with myself, my time, my health, and my thoughts, I desperately need to come to myself in the sense of being a child of God; I need to act like that’s who I am….not because of who I am, but because of who HE is.  Be righteous because He is righteous.  (1 John 3:6-8)  

The problem is…and this is hard for me to talk about because I like to act like I have it all together… but I sometimes feel quite misplaced.  Not lost, but in the Kingdom of God, I feel that I don’t really know what my “thing” is.  At times, I feel even more misplaced in my daily life.  And it’s hard for me to feel loved.  It’s not something I can explain, but I finally did realize (well into adulthood) that people do like me.  Some of them anyway.  Not feeling loved is a pretty lonely thing, and I have no reason for why it is so hard for me.  Those inadequacies easily carry over into my relationship with Christ.

There are days I feel ignored by God.  Do you ever feel that way?  When I am feeling overlooked, I look around at all the ways I am blessed by Him, and I remember that He may not always answer me how I want to be answered, but He is always faithful, even in the face of my faithlessness.