The Sunday Sermonette July 16, 2023. As a child, I often went fishing with my sweet Granny from D\u2019Lo. She taught me how to bait the hook, where best to fish, and how to wait patiently for the little red and white bobber to tantalizingly bob up and down. One day, the bobber went down and didn\u2019t come up, but oh, how it trashed around in the water. \u201cAndy! You\u2019ve got a big fish on the end of your line,\u201d Granny said, her azure-blue eyes flashing with excitement.<\/p>\n
I pulled. I yanked. That big fish, most likely a wide-mouth bass, put up a fight. But my ten-year-old self refused to back down. It wasn\u2019t the \u201cOld Man and the Sea.\u201d It was little old me and the pond and the fish in it. Getting tired, I pull one more time with all my might, unwilling to let go. And then it happened, the line broke!<\/p>\n
As we rode home in her old rattletrap 1949 Plymouth, Granny tried to explain what had happened, explaining that I should have been more patient, pulling the fish slowly to the surface. With wailing and tears, I stubbornly refused to admit my failure and that I\u2019d caused it. All the way home, I kept saying, \u201cNot my fault. Not my fault.\u201d But it was my fault. My adolescent pride refused to let me admit my failure.<\/p>\n
Do I remind you of you? Does my failure remind you of one of your failures? The failures that you continue to rationalize rather than admit to yourself, or your friends, or your family, or, perhaps, to God that you were wrong? The stubborn refusal to acknowledge that you were wrong can become a big problem. It can affect your mental and physical health because your mind is in constant turmoil and confusion, making you spend more time rationalizing the situation than learning from your mistake and moving on. Lest we forget, pride cometh before a fall.<\/p>\n
Over the years, I\u2019ve learned from my mistakes, although, at times, I still make them. However, I\u2019ve learned to ask God for forgiveness when I do. And while waiting for life\u2019s bobber to dance up and down again, to be patient, anticipating what He puts on the end of the line, so to speak.<\/p>\n
Ponder this and go forth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Sunday Sermonette July 16, 2023. As a child, I often went fishing with my sweet Granny from D\u2019Lo. She taught me how to bait the hook, where best to fish, and how to wait patiently for the little red and white bobber to tantalizingly bob up and down. One day, the bobber went down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n