Pool Noodle

Hey everyone, 

Happy October and Happy Fall!! This is my favorite month of the year. It’s my birthday month! ????

 Today I want to share a lesson entitled: A Pool Noodle and a Poppy Seed…are you a Speck-tator?!?

I will start with this scripture which is the foundation for today’s lesson. 

Matthew 7: 4-5 (NLT)

4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 

5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

So, let’s look at the Characteristics of a log

A log is something solid, big, heavy, very noticeable, you can’t miss it when you see it, In the scripture that I just shared, it speaks of a person trying to point out a fault in someone else while they are walking around with a much bigger and more serious issue that needs immediate attention. 

The log in our eye, I believe is “an issue/sin that we have learned to compensate for instead of confronting. We have ignored the convicting of the Holy spirt for so long that we have hidden and made excuses for a major problem in our lives.  Refusing to address it won’t stop the damage it is doing to us, how it’s harming those around us and canceling God’s plan for our lives…blatant disobedience comes with a hefty price tag. 

Just like with weeds, they must be uprooted and killed, otherwise, they will quickly multiply and overtake everything. The same holds true with the sin in our lives, the little things that we think are insignificant (gossiping, lying, being a busybody, being jealous, tearing others down, rejoicing in someone’s downfall, or living a double life) are the very things that keep us stuck. There are relationships right now that are torn apart because of a lie. There are “Christians” that don’t speak to each other because of a lies, grudges, jealousy and bitterness.

We can’t use our mouth to praise God yet hate, gossip about, lie on or slander the people he created.

James 3:9-10 (ERV)

9. We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people who were created in God’s likeness. 
10. These praises and curses come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, this should not happen.

There are many “logs” sins that we can have in our eye but the reason we don’t deal with them, in my opinion, can be traced back to these 2 things: 

Pride and self-righteousness, they both go hand in hand.

1. Pride will cause you to feel that you are better than everyone, that you have it all together. You present a false image to others as if you are self-made. Pride will cause you to ignore God’s conviction and instruction. It’s as if certain parts of His word apply to everyone but you.  Prideful people also don’t like to admit when they’re wrong and have a difficult time apologizing. Trust me, pride is the quickest way for your imaginary world to come tumbling down.   
2. Self-righteousness causes you to feel like you’re in right standing with God based on who you are, how long you’ve been saved, your title or the gifts you possess. Self-righteous people live as if they don’t sin or if they do, it’s not as bad as what other ppl are doing. Ummm newsflash, sin is sin, the consequences are different but one sin is not more severe than another….ALL sin separates us from God.  

Self-righteous ppl are also very judgmental, holier than thou, and have a pharisaical attitude. They tend to forget that God has forgiven them for the same thing they’re judging other people for……and many times God has forgiven them for committing the same sin over and over again.  

This scripture gives a candid look at pride and self-righteousness… 

Luke 18:9-14 (NLT)

9. Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10. “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12. I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
10. “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14. I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

As believers, being desensitized to sin in our lives is one of the most dangerous places to be. We have been lulled to sleep by our own ego and don’t even realize it. 

When we don’t want to face ourselves, we focus on other people and what they’re not doing right. 

Our daily lives are consumed with being the “sin police”. 

Instead, we need to arrest ourselves because we are damaging and injuring people’s lives by the way we live. 

We place so much emphasis on our gifts as if they’re a measuring stick of how close we are to God. Everyone on this planet is gifted…one gift is not more important than another and God gives them to us without repentance, so being gifted is no indication that God even knows us.  

Just like they’re actors in Hollywood who have mastered their craft and can play a role that is Oscar worthy, off stage that doesn’t mean that they have integrity. 

The same for the us, just because we are gifted, have a huge stage presence, a large following, we can sing until chandeliers break, preach the house down and people adore us , that does not mean we aren’t living unscrupulous and a double lives.  

People having a speck in their eye won’t cause you to miss out on what God has for you. 

But having a log in YOUR eye and refusing to deal with it…definitely will.

Speck/Dust

A speck is something that is small, easy to miss, have to really focus to see it, it typically doesn’t obstruct your vision or view.

Let me ask you….

If one person has a speck in their eye and another person has a log in their eye… which one can see better? I think that’s a no brainer.

When we remove the log out of our eye, Maybe we will realize What we thought we saw in others, we really didn’t see at all and if we did, we will have compassion and lovingly help them get it out.    

So, for those of us that have a log in our eye…. how do we get it out?

I have 3 suggestions for you…

1.Admit that there is a problem, be specific about what it is,be honest with yourself because God already knows and He’s been trying to show it to you.

2. Humble yourself, drop your pride/ego and ask forgiveness 

3.PRAY, find scriptures that speak to your issue, do the work to change by digging up the root cause, ask God to show you where this sin originated in your life, and if needed apologize to the people you have wronged.

I encourage all of us to ask God if there anything in our lives that we are overlooking and refusing to acknowledge. We need to ask Him to search our hearts and show us what we’re doing that offends Him. 

Let’s not rely on the fact that we are “good hearted ppl or “good Christians”, …that is one of the biggest deception tactics that the enemy uses to disguise the real condition of our heart.  There are none good but the Father. None.

Everyone that we try to help while a log is in our eye will be turned off because they will soon realize that we’re a hypocrite and not who we say we are.  

Let’s BE who we profess to be. Let’s tell ourselves the truth, daily work on the woman in the mirror and when we show up in the world and happen to meet someone with a speck in their eye….we’ll be able to lovingly and patiently help them get it out. Because we’ll remember how the mercy of God was patient with us as we removed a big log out of our own eye. May we never forget, but for the grace of God that could be me.

Please feel free to leave a comment if this blog resonates with you. I would love to hear your thoughts and will be sure to reply too! 

Thanks for coming back again this month and hanging out with me. I love it when you do! I’ll see you in November. ???? 

Journal and Greeting Card Giveaway: The first 10 people to leave a comment will receive a copy of my Party of ONE journal. You will be contacted via email if you are one of the winners. You must reside in the USA.

You are celebrated and appreciated my fellow Party of ONE!

God’s best always,

Leslie