I saw an article recently about a woman who was refusing her floral-arrangement service to a same-sex couple who wanted to get married. Instead of the couple going on their way to find a business that would do so, they took a stand against her and her beliefs and took it to court. They “won.” Now she stands to lose her business, her home, and savings all because she stood by her belief in what God says about marriage. What makes this even more perplexing is prior to all of this mess they were “friends.”
They “won” on the merits the owner violated the state’s anti-discrimination law. Let’s put aside the fact, God’s law trumps any state law. What happened to her rights as a citizen of these “United” States under the protection of the First Amendment of the constitution?
She didn’t take a stand against their choice of being gay, she took a stand for Christ and what she believes in. How is that any different than their choice? They took a stand against Christ and she stands with Christ. But instead of the mentality of just moving on, nothing to see here folks, they took their “friend” to court. What a shame.
Growing up in humid, sweltering weather, businesses around town would put up their “no shirt, no shoes, no service” signs. Didn’t like that? Then, you didn’t get in the business. Pretty simple, very straight forward and if you did test the waters, you were asked to leave and shown the sign. It was the right of the business owner what they would allow in their store. No different from those businesses that have a dress code. If you want to be part of that society, you play by their rules. If you don’t, then you will simply go someplace else because you don’t want to conform. Everybody has a choice.
You want to go to college, you’ll find a way. You don’t want to go college, don’t go. You want to smoke, go ahead and do it, you don’t, then don’t. It’s called freedom of choice. Now there’s a law banning folks from wearing their pants down to their knees…and while I’m sick of seeing people’s underwear, I totally disagree with the law stepping in and mandating how clothes should be worn. What’s next? I guess you better cover up the cleavage ladies and nix those coochy coo high slits in your skirt. But seriously, you should just make those wardrobe changes out of self-respect. Just sayin’ My blog…my choice…don’t like it, don’t read it. See how that worked. Or, you could get all fired up and lash out irrationally..your choice.
Where does being offended stop? What gives you or me the right to inflict our life style on someone else. You won’t find a societal “norm” these days because we’re all over the chart putting ourselves, our wants, and our perceived rights in front of anyone who doesn’t agree. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted from trying to move right, when someone keeps pushing me left. Can you say bully? We take our stand against bullying, act all shocked and indignant against those bulling headline stories and then we turn around and bully as hard as we can to convince someone our way is right. Go ahead…take a good, long, hard look in the mirror and say it….bully. How does it feel?
How can we begin to love one another, when we can’t even respect one another?
When I was knee deep in my sinful ways, I found plenty of people, just like me. When I decided to follow Christ…guess what? I found plenty of people just like me. Point being I made the choice. You have a choice. There are consequences for every single choice we make and they don’t just affect the one making the choice. That would be you.
We make our lives easier or harder by the choices we make. We make life harder when we inflict our choices on someone else and in walks offense. This business owner made a choice to follow Christ. The customers made a choice to follow Satan. She didn’t ask them to follow Christ, but they asked her to participate in Satan’s party. She said no. That was her choice. In walked their offendedness. (new word…grin) It’s simple…you don’t like it….move on….take your party someplace else. Life can be pretty amazing when we take our offended glasses off. I know….I wore them for years.
I sure don’t get things right all the time….I mess up more times than I care to count, but I do know that when my choices affected others negatively and I took pride in forcing my choice pill down someone’s throat, it didn’t take long for those relationships to go sour. I may not agree with you, you may not agree with me, but how you choose to live your life only becomes my problem when I let it.
God didn’t tell me to tell you how to live your life, because that’s not my job. He told me to tell you about Him and the love He has for you and what He’s done in my life. He said, “My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.” ~~John 15:12 (NIV) Guess what….that’s a choice.
Blessed to be Broken 