Casting Stones

You know the story...the woman is guilty.  Every one knows it.  They caught her sinning.  They're prepared to stone her; a practice so horrific, so barbaric, I can't even bear to imagine what it is really like.  But when they are told that anyone who hasn't sinned can cast the first stone, they walk away, one by one, beginning with the oldest, until every single person has left.

I've taught this story--more than once--during my years of teaching children's church.  I've also taught the one about not pointing out the splinter in another man's eye when you've got a plank in your own.  I read these scriptures and I nod my head, in complete agreement with Jesus' teachings about humility, honesty, and grace.  Yes, we should all be like this, I think to myself.

But it's a little more difficult to live by this truth when the person who has rained down chaos, uncertainty, and loss on your world is the same person you share your life with by day...and your bed by night.  When the voices in my head are screaming, "YOU did this!!  How could you put us in this position....AGAIN?!?!"  I can't say this out loud, of course.  My girls still need to respect their father...even though my DH, whom I choose to love in times of plenty AND in times of want, is not perfect. 

But I am reminded that he doesn't need to be.  I already have a bridegroom who is perfect.  He'll never disappoint me, never leave me, never forsake me, never let me down, never forget about me, never leave me hanging.  He is completely trustworthy. 

And He is all those things to my DH when I am the one to let him down.  Because one day I will.  I know this because 1 John 1:8 tells me, "If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth." 

So even though my ego and my pride are telling me that he deserves to "pay" with silent treatment and daggers in my eyes, and that I "deserve" to be angry, I will not be casting any stones.  Not only is that the LAST thing he needs right now, but I am the LAST person to be casting them.  Instead, I will root for him.  I will believe in him, in his goodness.  I will be humble and gentle; patient with him, making allowances for his faults because of my love (Ephesians 4:2).  With God's help...I will do these things.  And with God' grace, he will return these favors when it is my sin casting shadows over our lives.