Personal Hide and Seek

      This is a thought that has really been on my mind a lot my entire life, but sometimes it comes to the foreground of my old brain more than usual and lately it has. Not 100% sure where to start, but I think I will start with an old saying I remember and move on from there. The old saying I am thinking of goes something like this: "Whenever you point at someone else, there are 3 fingers pointing back at you."  And so what is that referring to? What am I referring to? Basically, do we try to blame others for our issues?  After all, it is easier to blame someone else than to take responsibility for messing up! It is easier to complain about someone else's actions than to change our own. It is easier to blame our boss for making our work miserable than to work on our negative attitude! It is easier to blame our spouse for our unhappiness than to look inside and see what is really the issue! It is easier to blame the kids for a messy house than to realize you need to do your part in setting a "clean" example. In reality, isn't it just easier to blame everyone else for all of our problems and woes?! That way it is on their heads and we can dance along the path of life we have chosen thinking we are doing just fine! But what is wrong with this picture? Is the easier way always the best? We can only hide from our personal issues for so long before they somehow catch up to us! After all, how do you become a better person by blaming others and not accepting the responsibility for your own happiness and success and growth! We CANNOT change other people no matter how much we think we can! Yes, we can have an influence on them for good or bad, but the only one we really can totally control is ourselves! And if you seriously stop and look around you, you will see the blame game going on all around us and it is so easy to get caught up in it! But, you say, there are people that are just downright difficult and make life miserable! Yes, sadly, there are people like that, BUT when we allow them to make us miserable, to give us a negative attitude, we have given them our personal control because no one can truly make us do or be anything without our permission. Once we allow those people to control us we have lost control of ourselves! Dealing with such people is easier said than done, especially if they are people we love and want in our lives. It can be a very hard thing to overcome, but your personal hide and seek has to come from within as you evaluate you and who you truly are and what you truly want. Taking responsiblity for your own attitude and how you deal with things is a start and as we continue to work on it we get better at it AND can have an influence for good on others. I wish I had all the answers on how to deal with this, but I don't because I am still working on it every day myself! BUT may I share a few words of advise from the one who knows all and can truly help us in all things. First along the same lines as my old thought, Christ once said, "He who is without sin among you let him caste the first stone.".  Another thought along those lines:  "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Yes, the Lord will make ALL things right someday and each of us will receive the recompense of our actions, thoughts and feelings! So may we seek to do good and follow Christ's example and learn to live so that we have nothing to hide!!! And perhaps as we do so we will be able to help others seek to do good and get rid of their hidden issues as well.