Greener Grass

Peer Pressure, it’s nothing new, even Jesus had it. When everyone would challenge Jesus to keep things the way they are, not to change them or challenge them. Jesus stood up to that, he said that’s nice but it’s wrong. He said I understand you, but you’re still wrong, Jesus did not worried about being accepted, he concerned himself with greater issues, such as the salvation of our souls.

We need to learn from Him, we need to understand that everyone has pressures, that everyone wants to feel they are part of the “group”, but we also need to understand that the “group” is ever changing, that we will always feel left out.  As the old saying goes “The grass is always greener in the other side”. So true, we always see others as having it better, getting what they want, no worries etc. But we fail to understand that they to look at us and say the same thing.  Life is always better lived on the outside, or so we think.

Living a life of envy and pressure takes its toll on you, why do you think Jesus told us not to worry, that  God (you know that all powerful being that created everything) will take care of us, if we only would let him ( I added the last part, Jesus never said that directly).  We silly humans place so much unneeded stress in our lives that Jesus and God must be shaking their heads saying “Why don’t they get it?!”

We don’t get it because we are of a fallen nature, but we also don’t get it for another reason. If the grass was not always greener on the other side, if no one pressured us in to doing things we did not want to do…. You ready for it?… We could not blame others; we would have to take total responsibility…

And as Adam and Eve have taught us, we don’t like taking responsibility for our own actions. Eve blamed the snake and Adam blamed Eve. Just think how different the world would be today if Adam and Eve would have just looked at God and said, “I’m sorry, I was weak, and I take total responsibility”.

Would we still be having this discussion about peer pressure and the grass being greener, most likely, but I am sure it would be a minority of people we would be talking about, and not the majority. We are simple creatures when you think about it. Sure we have created great wonders, and we have achieved a status that is admirable among Gods creations, but let’s be honest, we have failed God and ourselves. We have not lived up to our own ability, mostly because we fail to allow ourselves to do so, by always being concerned with what we are not, or what we do not have.

Stop for a moment and think about yesterday, really think, was it really that bad? Do you really want to be like so-and-so? Is the grass really greener? If you are honest with yourself, I would bet my life that you would have to say no, the grass is not really greener, it’s just different, and no so-and-so’s life is not what I want, and truthfully my life is not as bad as I make it out to be.

My Mom, God bless her soul, raised 5 kids, all of us different, and all of us with our own unique personalities and problems. We all received the same love and understanding, we all had the same faith poured in to us, but only two of us embraced it, the others chose to always look for the greener grass, and in not finding it, live a life of pain and despair.  Me and My sister, we hear our Mothers words, and we embraced them. Her words where simple and I am sure each of you have heard them before, but they should be repeated often in this world. Her words where soft and healing, but sometimes stung, they were spoken out of love, and yes even sometimes out of desperation, her word were “For the Grace of God go I”.

We must always remember that God has given us all we need, and has placed in us His graces. We are creatures created out of LOVE, and creatures the desire love. We are searching for it in all we do, but all too often we fail to remember that all the love we need is in us, God has provided.

For the Grace of God go I…. Thanks Mom for the education of a life time, in one simple phrase, and thanks God for the graces you have given me.

Sure I will stumble and fall, and at time I will give in to peer pressure and go looking for the greener grass, for I am only human, and I am of a fallen nature. But with the grace of God I will find my way back, and will learn to not fall in to the same traps. God loves me, this I know, and God has created me out of nothing but pure love, so how can the grass be any greener then the grass God has given me?

Paul