It's easy to be brave when someone else is the one
experiencing the pain!

I wondered last week as I was writing a daily thought about facing trials with a positive attitude if I could have been so upbeat if I were one of the families suffering the loss of a child as a result of the recent school shootings.  It's easy to be brave when someone else is experiencing the pain.

It's also easy to believe that someone else is the only one needing treatment. "Don't look at me, doctor.  Take care of her!"  As you sat listening to (or delivering) a sermon Sunday, did you find yourself saying, "I sure hope so-and-so is listening, because this is something he really needs to work on!"

Listen to these words of James:

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer
of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.  But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."  (James 1:23-25)

James does not say that the word of God is a magnifying glass or a telescope to look at others. Rather, it is a mirror.  And a mirror is only used
to look at yourself.

This week, I pray that you will take the opportunity to use the word of God as a mirror, and may your life be changed by it.