Some Random Thoughts on Human Nature
An Honest Heart
Learning the Hard Way
Human nature often learns the same thing the hard way more than once.
When we were kids, my cousin William walked up to me one day limping.
When I asked him what the problem was, he told me, “I stepped on a bumblebee barefoot.”
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“I just felt like it,” was the reply.
Then a few days later he was limping again.
“What happened this time?” I asked.
“I stepped on a bumblebee barefoot,” he replied.
“Why?” I asked. “Didn’t you learn anything the last time?”
“I thought if I did it quick, it wouldn’t hurt.”
A high school girl had her foot in a cast.
“What happened?” I asked.
“My boyfriend backed over it with his car,” she replied.
“How?”
“He started to back out of the driveway and I put my foot behind his front tire and told him he could not leave. He figured if he drove over it fast, it would not hurt.”
“Breathe on me!”
We should commit our lives into God’s hands and be prudent in planning and attaining goals, but we should also shun manipulation and the use of questionable means to get what we want.
My sister had the mumps, and my cousin William decided he wanted to get the mumps too so he could stay home from school. So he came over to our house before getting on the school bus each morning during the first week of her sickness. He would go over to Eva’s sickbed and lean over in her face and say, “Breathe on me.” He would inhale deeply as she breathed on his face.
One morning not long after that, he awoke with the mumps, with jaws and neck all swollen. His first thought was, “Oh boy! Now I can stay home from school!”
But to his chagrin, he looked out the window to see that our coastal Carolina community had received one of its extremely rare winter snows. He lay in bed while all the rest of us kids stayed out of school to play in the snow for a couple days.
"I love everybody?"
A person who says he loves everybody may not actually love anybody. It is easier to love everybody than to love somebody. “Everybody” refers to a vague and general group of people. We are called to love the individuals we have to deal with on a daily basis.
The flesh is never satisfied.
A man who can have any woman he wants will not want any woman he has. He thinks he is desired of all, and that there will always be a better one around the next corner. The Bible says that the desires of the flesh are deceitful. They lie to us and are never satisfied when indulged. When we feed our “flesh” it never (for more than a moment) sits back and says, “Thanks, I’m okay now.” It always wants and usually demands more and more.
The most contented and satisfied person is the one who has disciplined himself or herself to commit to and love the spouse God has given.
The Problem with “Mr. Cool”
Why do some of the prettiest girls often get involved with some of the sorriest guys? Maybe it’s because the sorriest men will “use” a girl for sex, and the girl is deceived into thinking this is love. People who are seeking love need to realize that promiscuity prevents intimacy. A girl desiring to be loved and to have an intimate relationship will give her body to a guy not realizing that it will distract him from her. Sex should follow the real intimacy of commitment and love in a real relationship (in marriage).
Also, girls who are looking for “Mr. Cool” will tend to live in the moment and foolishly ignore the future. “Mr. Cool” is good for a “one-night stand” or for a short-term relationship because he makes a girl feel attractive and needed for the moment. But he most likely will not commit to or be faithful for the long haul. He will skip out when the need for disciplined responsibility is called for and when it’s time to live in the nitty-gritty daily life of caring for someone other than himself.
So many kids today are being hurt by the fantasy and unrealistic expectations fed to them by the entertainment industry and the lack of healthy parenting.
In trying to “referee” a relational conflict I found that one of the parties involved was a man with whom I could not find any solid ground on which to communicate. I realized that he was one of those people who create their own false reality and then make themselves believe it. A man deceives himself first, so he can lie to everyone else with a clear conscience. Integrity starts with being honest with ourselves.
Learning the Hard Way
Human nature often learns the same thing the hard way more than once.
When we were kids, my cousin William walked up to me one day limping.
When I asked him what the problem was, he told me, “I stepped on a bumblebee barefoot.”
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“I just felt like it,” was the reply.
Then a few days later he was limping again.
“What happened this time?” I asked.
“I stepped on a bumblebee barefoot,” he replied.
“Why?” I asked. “Didn’t you learn anything the last time?”
“I thought if I did it quick, it wouldn’t hurt.”
A high school girl had her foot in a cast.
“What happened?” I asked.
“My boyfriend backed over it with his car,” she replied.
“How?”
“He started to back out of the driveway and I put my foot behind his front tire and told him he could not leave. He figured if he drove over it fast, it would not hurt.”
“Breathe on me!”
We should commit our lives into God’s hands and be prudent in planning and attaining goals, but we should also shun manipulation and the use of questionable means to get what we want.
My sister had the mumps, and my cousin William decided he wanted to get the mumps too so he could stay home from school. So he came over to our house before getting on the school bus each morning during the first week of her sickness. He would go over to Eva’s sickbed and lean over in her face and say, “Breathe on me.” He would inhale deeply as she breathed on his face.
One morning not long after that, he awoke with the mumps, with jaws and neck all swollen. His first thought was, “Oh boy! Now I can stay home from school!”
But to his chagrin, he looked out the window to see that our coastal Carolina community had received one of its extremely rare winter snows. He lay in bed while all the rest of us kids stayed out of school to play in the snow for a couple days.
"I love everybody?"
A person who says he loves everybody may not actually love anybody. It is easier to love everybody than to love somebody. “Everybody” refers to a vague and general group of people. We are called to love the individuals we have to deal with on a daily basis.
The flesh is never satisfied.
A man who can have any woman he wants will not want any woman he has. He thinks he is desired of all, and that there will always be a better one around the next corner. The Bible says that the desires of the flesh are deceitful. They lie to us and are never satisfied when indulged. When we feed our “flesh” it never (for more than a moment) sits back and says, “Thanks, I’m okay now.” It always wants and usually demands more and more.
The most contented and satisfied person is the one who has disciplined himself or herself to commit to and love the spouse God has given.
The Problem with “Mr. Cool”
Why do some of the prettiest girls often get involved with some of the sorriest guys? Maybe it’s because the sorriest men will “use” a girl for sex, and the girl is deceived into thinking this is love. People who are seeking love need to realize that promiscuity prevents intimacy. A girl desiring to be loved and to have an intimate relationship will give her body to a guy not realizing that it will distract him from her. Sex should follow the real intimacy of commitment and love in a real relationship (in marriage).
Also, girls who are looking for “Mr. Cool” will tend to live in the moment and foolishly ignore the future. “Mr. Cool” is good for a “one-night stand” or for a short-term relationship because he makes a girl feel attractive and needed for the moment. But he most likely will not commit to or be faithful for the long haul. He will skip out when the need for disciplined responsibility is called for and when it’s time to live in the nitty-gritty daily life of caring for someone other than himself.
So many kids today are being hurt by the fantasy and unrealistic expectations fed to them by the entertainment industry and the lack of healthy parenting.
Comments
George Main