Judgement

For Christmas I was given a book, <u>The Shack</u>, from a very good friend of mine. She is Ella's godmother and also mine in a sense. ( We call them sponsors.) Anyway, one of the chapters in this book discusses judgment. Now whether or not you are religious, I believe what was said in this chapter is applicable. I wont go into too much detail about what happens in the story because I really don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not read it.

The protagonist is told that he has to choose between his children, he is to choose only two to go to heaven and the other three will be sentenced to He!!. He falls to his knees saying that he cannot make this kind of a choice and to please take him in place of his children. The whole point of this lesson is that even God has a difficult time deciding whom to judge because he loves all of his children. As I said religious or not there is something to be learned here. Who are we to judge anyone? So often I will hear judgmental things and I think well what would you do if you were in their shoes, so to speak?

New Year's Day we went to the in laws for dinner and more than once I heard critical things about those around. I thought, this is your family! Why are you doing this? What really got under my skin was that twice what I had heard was about Ella! How can you be judging a baby?! Here is an example of what I am talking about.

:: Matt is sitting in the living room with Ella on his lap. His cousin who is 35(?) comes in and sits down by Matt and starts talking to him. ::

Cousin: "How old is Ella now?"

Matt: "She is six months old" (as I said this was a month ago)

C: "Oh! Can she sit up yet?"

M: " Not quite, but she is getting there."

C: "Oh," Look of disgust

Afterward when he told me this I was so upset. Who would be so rude about a baby? So what she couldn't sit up yet. I'm sure if that cousin knew that she still cannot sit up on her own for long periods of time she would have even more to say. It bothered me for quite a while but then I gave my head a shake. Every baby is different. I know that she will come around to it soon. I'm not too worried. Mostly she is not sitting up yet because she is so interested in everything that is around her. She sees her toy in front of her and she wants to go there and get it. She just doesn't quite have the balance to reach for it and come back yet. Mainly I just have to remember how much this woman hurt my feelings and be absolute sure that I never do that sort of thing to anyone else. Not that I am anything like the majority of his family, which is exactly why he married me! ;)



Post written Feb, 3 2009 moved from previous blog