Specks vs. Planks

New York Botanical Gardens, Bronx, NY  Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

How can you say to your brother, 

'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' 

when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? 

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye,

 and then you will see clearly to remove the speck 

from your brother's eye.

Luke 6:42

Of all the complexities of life that are hard to understand, the one that gets to me the most are people who need to control everything and everyone around them.  Coming in a close second are those people whose motto is:  Don't do as I do, do as I say.  A person who embodies both of these characteristics has the capacity to constantly create chaos.

• The man who needs to control every thing that his children do, even when they are fully grown adults.
• The mother who cannot stop interfering in the marriage(s) of her child(ren)?   
• The father who cheats on his wife, moves in with his girlfriend, and then has a fit when his unmarried daughter moves in with her boyfriend.
• The brother who has plenty of faults of his own, but constantly picks at the faults of his siblings.
• The sister who desperately needs to put her sibling down in order to raise herself up.
• The friend who sees you as little more than a project to change.
• The man or woman who truly believes that they know what is best for your life far better than you do.
• The cheater who can't abide your cheating.
• The liar who makes everyone else sound dishonest

I have three adult daughters who all, at various times and in various ways, lives their lives differently from how I would live.  I do not, however, feel the need or have the right to try and control their choices.  They are grown women, and they have the right to choose for themselves.  I can not set myself up as the perfect example (Live like ME!), because I have my own faults and failures (that they are not blind to).

The God of heaven who created us does not attempt to control our thoughts and choices - they are ours and ours alone to make.  Perhaps we human beings should afford the same courtesy to those around us.