Surround yourself with accountability partners
I am sure I am not the only one that sometimes needs a recentering or nudge to put me back on the correct path! Today, I had such an encounter. I find it is always easy to say the right things and tell people what you know they want to hear…but how easy is it to always walk that path? Doing the right thing is not always the easy thing, and doing it consistently, regardless of how you may feel in that moment is definitely not the easy thing!
I have a small group of women that are my accountability partners whether they realize it or not. Because of them, I try to write every day and make sure we connect on our daily devotional. We all share one of my favorite books/gifts from Guidepost which is their daily planner so we have the same verse to review daily. This has led to some great text messages and chats on what those verses mean to each of us.
Today-one of those ladies called me out on my jokester ways and reminded me of what I wrote yesterday about what we do for the least of these…in fact, she reminded me several times today!
None of us are without sin and none of us walk the perfect path every minute of the day. Our verse in our Guidepost Daily Planner today reminded me of this…not because of the verse alone, but the parable surrounding the verse. “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). I can picture him standing there in complete submission of his sinful ways. To me, the more interesting part of our reading is what came before that verse. The parable is about two men that went to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other the tax collector mentioned above. The Pharisee prayed in thanks to God for not being like the “other people”- “robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like the tax collector” (Luke 18:11). He continues to share how he fasts and tithes to honor God. Jesus shares this parable and honors the tax collector above the Pharisee and reminds us that those “who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).
Today, one of my accountability partners reminded me I was behaving more like the Pharisee and not with the humility of the tax collector. She reminded me to remain humble. Today-I pray that you have those true friends in your life that help guide you back on your path. I pray that when you start to see yourself above others, you pause, reflect, and remember, none of us are so different than the tax collector.
