Which Frog are you?

I’m a grumpy old man.  I should have seen it but I didn’t, it took my son to call me a grumpy old man yesterday for me to realize…he was right! In my attitude, that is.  I realized I have been critical of a lot of things in my life. My drive for success in my faith, business and home drew me away from what was really important. God’s love!

Where are you heading…Are you a Grumpy old Christian?

You know you are a grumpy old Christian when you are critical of everything and everyone.

 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Phil 4:8).

You know you have slipped into the grumpy old Christian category when your words are nothing but critical comments to others about others. People do this with sarcastic humor; With derogatory remarks about others; When they share unnecessary information with others for the purpose of exposing another’s weakness; When they share detailed prayer requests about others; When they can only see people’s faults and when you can only share the churches faults.

Here’s a reality check: God uses imperfect people to do his perfect will.

Here’s a reality check: God uses imperfect churches to do his perfect will.

James 1:26, 27 - If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

I went to the dermatologist this week to have him check out some bumps and grinds.  He found a mole that I had him remove immediately and checked for cancer. I’m sure it will come back negative. But I thought it would be a good idea to get it removed so that it does not become a problem later in life. If there is something on my body with the potential to cause cancer then I want it removed so that I eliminate the possibility of cancer.

A critical attitude will do the same to an individual that cancer will do to the physical body. It slowly kills; it makes them weak in the kingdom of God and even a danger in the kingdom of God. Does something in your attitude toward life and others need surgery? Do we say things like, “well, that’s just me!” or “It’s the way I have always been?” The sad fact is too many times we accept discouragement in changing our attitude and we accept defeat.

I read this story on the Internet but not sure where it came from. There were these 2 frogs and they had fallen into a can of cream, the sides of the can were very slippery. The 1^st frog said, “Well, that’s it. Were dead! Who needs another frog in this world anyways?” After a short time, he drowned. The other frog decided to just swim around a bit in hopes that an idea for escape would come to him. After a while, he hopped out of the can. See, he churned that cream so much, it turned to butter!

We need to churn towards our positive attitudes and the Love of God… else you might get creamed!