Being Popular

Good morning! I hope that you will BYDWP; I just did.  I have not had my tea nor broken my fast yet, but that is forthcoming. I wanted to get this blogging done for you first.
     You know, most of us have suffered through the turmoil of the teenage years and the desire to be among the popular crowd in school. Yes, I did for a moment, too. But not for long. I found that being with the popular crowd meant that you had to do or say some things that made you uncomfortable when you were by yourself. Any time that I had to justify an action or a put down by saying, "Anyway, they knew we were playing," I felt guilty at the end of the day. Needless to say, I did not stay even on the fringes of that group very long at all because I just did not fit. I had to be able to look at myself in the mirror of my heart and know that I had done my best for the Lord at the end of the day. I used to look at some of the mean acting folks and wonder how they could do and say some of the unkind things that they did, all to get a laugh out of the group at someone else's expense.
     Sometimes, as children of God, we are in similar circumstances. But it is more brutal than the teenage years. I have found that people do not like you very much at all if you try to live for the Lord. They often want to belittle, ostracize and be mean to you. Yet, I have determined that God means more to me than man ever could. That is one of the reasons that you see that I have added the title,"Stepping On" in the closing signature of my blog. That means that I am going on in my walk as His child no matter folks say. You know why? Sure you do, Jesus has the final say at the end of the day. The apostles wrote, "We ought we to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29 KJV)
     Yes, I realize that deciding that popularity is not the most important thing in life is a tough decision to make. But look at it this way:

1. Who is the most powerful, man or God?" 
2. Who has heaven or hell to send us to? 
3. Who is recording everything that we do down here in this life?
4. Who picks us up when we fall time and time again? Uhm, hmmm, you get my drift so I will say no more. 

I know that I am blunt, but tough situations call for tough measures. If we want to curry favor with someone, let that Someone be God, the Creator, the Omnipotent. I'd rather be popular with Him any day instead of men because He pays dividends that are out of this world. (Dividends so great that it can not be conceived of in our minds.)

Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,
Alma L. Stepping On Jones

Blog P.S. - Will I take popularity? Sure I will, but not at just any cost!