“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.  If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” -Jesus (Matthew 5:43-48)

How do you stay true to who you are when you’re surrounded by everything that contradicts what you believe? You take a step back, look at the word of God and align your life with it. In this world today, His word is the only thing that makes sense. We’ve lost a sense of purpose and have pushed Jesus completely out of the picture. We are not taking up our cross daily and following him. We are taking pictures of ourselves daily and asking people to follow us. Paul said to “imitate me, as I imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 10:34) yet today we are imitating everything but Christ and imitate the ways of this world. We’re all lost. We’re all blinded. Unless the scales from our eyes fall off and we see the world through Christ eyes. Being accepting does not mean agreeing. Being loving does not mean that God is not love. Being holy does not mean being tolerate of the unholiness around you. We’ve gone backwards. How do we move forward? We take a step a back, look at the word of God and align our lives with it.