To Be or Not To Be.....a Hypocrite

I am off work for the summer. I have gotten so much done in the 8 days I have not been at work! As much I love my job and believe in the things I do there, I am grateful for my summers off. I love being with my family. I love being able to catch up on all the menial tasks I get behind on during the school year. I love sitting in my gazebo late at night under the stars. It gives me a lot of time to think.

Cheers!

As I mowed my lawn today, I had a lot going on in this little brain of mine while I pushed the mower for what seemed like miles. This morning when I was on Facebook I saw this:

I liked it. It made sense to me. I thought it was cool. Then I started thinking about hypocrites. And how easy it seems for us to call others hypocrites. And it occurred to me that we all are...well....hypocrites. Let me explain.

 

It's quite simple actually.

 

WE'RE HUMAN. We make mistakes. We shape who we are (as well as who we want to become) by the belief systems we embrace and by the actions we choose. We  choose morals to convey, and hope to model ourselves in the boundaries we create through our beliefs. Sometimes we make decisions that do not coincide with said belief system and these actions either change our position into something different, or become mistakes that we have to overcome before we progress in our selected molds. In other words we mess up. We say one thing and do another. We make poor judgments. So really, because every last one of us messes up, we are hypocrites. We are not showing the world the things we say we believe in, so we must be. Some say "I believe in Christ-like love", yet hurt someone's feelings by lashing out. Someone professes to embrace modesty, yet pictures get posted of that someone in a bikini. Groups of people call for a "live and let live" standard, but get angry if their position is not embraced by everyone else. We say "you shouldn't judge"-until there's someone we feel deserves our judgment.

 

Does this mean we are hypocrites? I'm not sure being human automatically turns us in to one. But I think we are doing our best, making mistakes, learning from them, and adjusting our positions. Repeatedly. There really are a few true hypocrites out there. The people who by definition "feign some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements." I believe there is a God and that He will have final say on who is and is not a hypocrite.

 

I agreed with this meme on FB. In my ever so humble opinion, I think it's a good point, but it obviously took me down a different road than I originally started on. It made me want to be careful-in what I say and what I do.And hope that when I do mess up, you won't see me as a hypocrite, but as someone who is trying, and hopefully becoming better in the process.