Replies

Pax, I think Huck is on to something. Although again, I stress that passing judgement on people is a good thing when you're passing the judgement in order to protect your own -- for example, being given a business proposition by a woman who has three different kids by three different fathers, one of them cruelly abusive, and where virtually everyone close to her suffers emotional pain becaue of her stupid decisions -- it's okay to acknowledge that and judge. Really. We all do it and we all MUST do it in order to thrive. We judge and say, "Nope, I don't want to get into a business relationship with that person because she's a proven chronic screw-up." That kind of thing -- whether or not to date a person, whether or not to trust a person, whether or not to take a person's advice. We all judge. It's a truth of life. The thing is, most of the time we keep it to ourselves (unlike so many on this thread). I think that what God is getting at is that we when we judge, we should hold ourselves to those same standards. By that guide, then, these people on this thread must have standards that mean they would never give themselves a break for an accident due to busy lives, and that's both stupid and sad on their part.

The high-and-mighty people who are so arrogantly critize these parents are doing, I think, just what Huck says. This was an accident, and life DOES have sharp teeth. Here's the deal: LIFE ISN'T FAIR. It never has been, it never will be, and no one, not God nor Jesus, ever said it WOULD be.

The bottom line: parents need to recognize and adapt Chuck Yeager's philosophy: The rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own. Parents who tell the Nanny State to go screw itself, parents who make up their OWN rules for keeping their children safe and who cart them around in the front seat, are the smartest ones. They are looking to their own houses -- and that's EXACTLY what all these self-righteous twits on this board who critizes these people should be doing. But they don't because it doesn't give them the illusion of being superior or safe.

Hey Finny. I agree with your point that judgement, or perhaps more precisely, discrimination is necessary. Hopefully parents discrimate and judge who to let babysit their children. There is definitely a time and place to be judgemental.

BUT, and this is where you understood my point, life is NOT fair. It may make you feel better to tell yerself people had it coming to them, but we don't always have it coming to us. The beautiful little children who get abducted and killed don't have it coming to them. The little children who get leukemia and die at age 8 don't have it coming to them. It's a rough, wicked world. What is amazing is not how bad it is. I think it's amazing how good it is, despite the horrors we all face.

I definitely try to use the same standard on others I use on myself, which is good news for everyone else. LOL :-)I've screwed up plenty of times. And I remind myself all the time that the sharp teeth could bite me any time, any place. Sorta makes you thankful for every peaceful day you get.

what we should all remember is that these parents weren't at the casino or the bar or at the mall....they were not drunks or druggies or sluts as far as we know....

accidents and mistakes are part of human life....

and for those that think this could never happen to them because they are superior parents and human beings....well, Jesus had a way of knocking those kind of people off their pedestal when HE walked the earth....

Pax, I think Huck is on to something. Although again, I stress that passing judgement on people is a good thing when you're passing the judgement in order to protect your own -- for example, being given a business proposition by a woman who has three different kids by three different fathers, one of them cruelly abusive, and where virtually everyone close to her suffers emotional pain becaue of her stupid decisions -- it's okay to acknowledge that and judge. Really. We all do it and we all MUST do it in order to thrive. We judge and say, "Nope, I don't want to get into a business relationship with that person because she's a proven chronic screw-up." That kind of thing -- whether or not to date a person, whether or not to trust a person, whether or not to take a person's advice. We all judge. It's a truth of life.

I agree with you, Finny. I never said that I think we can't make judgements in everyday life whether it's judging a situation or a person's character in order to make good decisions for ourselves and those for whom we're responsible.

The judging that Christ was referring is the judgement of the state of another's soul. We never are to do that because we don't have the vision for it.

I object to the judging of so many on this thread because they're judging the souls, the inner motives and intentions of these parents when there is no way we can do that accurately. Only God has the ability to see those things.

I touched on this in post #70.