Oh my gravy--my toes are so stinking sore!  Because they are indeed getting stepped on left and right by this Lies Women Believe Bible study.  It's worse than when I wear flip flops near my boys with their big feet and heavy tennis shoes.  Today's zinger?  How we fall for the lie that we have our rights.  

Let me tell you.  I have been disturbed by this thing we call "entitlement."  That buzz phrase is used a lot--but it's also quite evident these days in our culture.  Funny how I can sit back offended by others' entitlement issues when they step on my rights that I'm entitled to.  As Cooper would say--"OH, the irony!"  (His new favorite phrase).  Boy, can I get frustrated quickly when driving--that is a sure sign of the rampant entitlement around here.  HELLO!  It's called a YIELD sign (a phrase I must shamefully admit my children now repeat).  Or when I stand patiently in a long line at a store and some lady walks up and steps in front me, sweetly saying, "Oh, I just need to ask a question."  GRRR.   Wait your turn, lady.  (hypothetical situation, of course....)

Yeah, I know.  I am just one of the crowd with entitlement issues.  Today's lesson is bruising me a bit with the truth of it.  Because I do think I have the right to be appreciated by my children, for my family to upkeep the housework I do, for wider margins in my schedule, for time to be brain dead after my children are in bed, (and speaking of) for my children to follow the bed time routine without delaying, for my new dog to learn to stop marking in the house, for my Sunday paper to actually have ALL the sections included.  Aren't these my certain inalienable rights?!

But, there's a big old problem with this logic.  If I want to really get to the heart of my rights--I DON'T have the right to be forgiven and redeemed from all sin.  I DON'T have the right to be given a personal relationship with the God of the Universe.  I DON'T have the right to eternal life.  I DON'T have the right to claim the Lord as the lover of my soul and my Great Provider.  I DON'T have the right to have been adopted as a child and heir through the death of Christ.  None of those were my rights--just God's loving gift of grace and mercy.

And, if I am to be a "Christian"--or as we reminded our children last night--a little Christ, a representation of Christ--then I must be like Him.  He, who: