The Hollier Family

"No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin have taken a good look at Christ. They've got him all backwards." 1 John 3:6 The Message

I've been convicted of this in a lot of different ways....especially the part of "making a practice of sin". You see, I'm what you would call a planner, an organizer, an obsessive person, and certainly a person of principles. Now you might be saying to yourself...aren't those good things? Isn't that what gets the job done at times? At times yes. But at times, my personality and the sin that is so prevalent in my life is NOT. GOOD. How so? Let me explain....because I'm such an obsessive person, I can't let things go. EVER. Scenario #1 If you said you were going to do the dishes, they have to be done RIGHT NOW, and I can't move onto anything else in my brain until they are done. So if you're not going to do it my way, which is right now, move and let me do it (which will really tick me off). Scenario #2 Because I'm a person of principles, I seem to focus on those principles rather than the person at hand. This comes up in my life more times than I can count. Let me further explain...in the first scenario said person didn't do the dishes. Now, rather than to take into consideration that said person could've gone grocery shopping, done laundry, had an awful day at work, fill in the blank, it doesn't matter. The principle was that said person was supposed to do something and they didn't do it.

Do you see how these things can become a problem? My natural reactions to things is to always get mad, to become "principled", to become controlling. But those things happen when I make a practice of putting my needs in front of others. My natural personality comes out and my view of others being first and me being second is clouded. On Sunday, Jared really focused on this principle and I had to laugh because I felt so much conviction from the Lord, and it's pretty hard hearing it through my husband. He talked about rather than fighting with your family, you need to start fighting for them. He used the example of Abram and Lot in Genesis. When they were running out of room and started fighting they just parted ways. Abram knew that it wasn't worth the argument. He chose the person (Lot) over his principles (the fact that he could've made Lot go away since everything he had was bc of his uncle in the first place). So often, I choose principles over people. That's not what Abram did and that's certainly not what Jesus did. Because I've made a "practice of sin", choosing people over principles doesn't come easy for me. So I'm trying, with the Lord's help, to focus more on people and less on my controlling, principled self.

I challenge you to do the same. The next time you feel the urge to get upset or angry, ask yourself, "Is it worth damaging the relationship? Is this issue really more important to me than this person is?" Those two questions have really shaken me and challenged me to the core. Not that I have it all together, but I'm becoming more aware of the sin in my life, and how if I want to be like Jesus, I've got to get rid of it. Otherwise "I've got him all backwards".