Real, Round People

Day 8: Real, Round People

(Praying for self-control)

We're all round people, folks.  

Do you remember learning about fictional characters back in high school English?  I might be a little nerdier than most, so one thing I remember is the difference between round characters and flat characters.  Flat characters are two-dimensional, uncomplicated, and they don't really change.  Round characters, however, are complex, and they change throughout the course of a story.  Best of all, they're not perfect.  They do something amazing, and then they mess up.  Then they do something pretty good again.  We love them, and then we really don't like them at all, but we find ourselves rooting for them anyway.  And throughout the story, they keep right on changing.  I love a well-developed round character.  

And we're all round people.  We don't have it all together.  We do great things!  And we make all kinds of mistakes.  (And isn't that why we need a Savior?)  

I'm as round as anyone else, and that's what this 30-day challenge is about.  To tell you the truth, I consider myself to be a pretty okay mom, most of the time.  I don't yell at my child all the time; in fact, I've gone 7+ straight days without yelling once!  ;)  But I DO mess up, and I can get stuck in a rut.  And since I'm round, I think I can still change my story.  

My 3-year-old daughter is not constantly whining or tantruming, but is actually a really funny, loving, cheerful, and spirited little girl.  And my baby doesn't have dirty diapers every minute of the day, nor does he spend all his time playing in the toilet or throwing pots and pans down HARD onto the kitchen floor (although he might, if given the chance).  

We're real people.  We're all round characters.  And when you talk as much as I do, or as much as Maisy does, self-control can be extra hard to attain.  James 3 has a lot to say about this, too.  I like the way it is phrased in The Message:

When You Open Your Mouth

   Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends.  Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards.  And none of us is perfectly qualified.  We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths.  If you could find someone whose speech was perfectly true, you'd have a perfect person, in perfect control of life.  

   A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse.  A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds.  A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything -- or destroy it!

   It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire.  A careless or wrong placed word out of your mouth can do that.  By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony into chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

  This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can't tame a tongue -- it's never been done.  The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer.  With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image.  Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!

  My friends, this can't go on.  A spring doesn't gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it?  Apple trees don't bear strawberries, do they?  Raspberry bushes don't bear apples, do they?  You're not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you? 

Live Well, Live Wisely

Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom?  Here's what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly.  It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts.  Mean-spirited ambition isn't wisdom.  Boasting that you are wise isn't wisdom -- it's animal cunning, devilish cunning.  Whenever you're trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others' throats.

   Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others.  It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced.  You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy the results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. 

We're not perfect people.  I'm far from perfect.  But we're round people, so we can try to change.  I can try to tame my tongue and do the hard work that James is talking about.  And all the while, I'm thankful for my forgiving, loving God.