EARS, EYES, AND MOUTH
August 2016
Everybody was in a frenzy to get all thirteen large sample pieces loaded on the truck. The noise level escalated, and I was trying to finish my paperwork at a table in the same room. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and went to the locker with the earplugs and grabbed the purple ones. I’d never tried them before. They were amazing! In just a couple seconds all the voices disappeared. It was great.
What do I hear, see and say? I remember a picture of three monkeys, the first covered his ears, the second, his eyes and the third, his mouth. It was labeled, HEAR NO EVIL, SEE NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL. I quickly drew my version for painters like myself.
In the construction industry, it can get uproarious and sometimes I don’t want to participate. It’s good to look someone directly in the eyes when they’re speaking, but if they’re speaking nonsense or garbage, instead of trying to correct them (which isn’t my job), I look away and they hardly even notice.
I’m not antisocial, but I am responsible to God and the Lord Jesus Christ to do my best not to get wrapped up with the things of the world. I try to keep myself somewhat apart from the extreme craziness when it happens.
God says something about this right in the beginning of the Bible: “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested” (Gen. 2:3). The word sanctified is the Hebrew word “qadash” which means “to be set apart.” The only way to have true rest in our current world is to be set apart unto God. Keeping watch over what comes into my ears, into my eyes and out of my mouth helps me do this.
Second Timothy 2:21 tells us that if a person purges himself from those things that are dishonorable, “he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” That’s what we want.
David spoke these words: “Turn my eyes away from vanity [all those worldly, meaningless things that distract—let Your priorities be mine], and restore me [with renewed energy] in Your ways” (Ps. 119:37 AMP).
The Lord wants us to strive to be holy in all aspects of our lives. That’s why He inspired Paul to write First Corinthians 3:16: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth [is dwelling] in you?”
And in Romans 12:1-2: “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Though my cartoon above is for painters like me, in the construction industry, the principles are the same for all Christians. It’s our responsibility to do our best in the natural, but beyond that, it’s our privilege to ask the Lord to help us, because there’s no way we can’t do it without Him.
Love, Carolyn
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