-Warmest regards,
Miranda

@Ron – I really enjoyed reading that:)! Thanks so much for taking the time to share, Ron!! My love to your family, especially your 16th year old. God bless:)!!

@Dave – YES – He is absolutely and positively awesome!:)! Thank you very much Dave…Have a wonderful rest of the week!:)!

@Femi – Yaaay:)!!! Thank you Femi, Love you much much:-)!!

@Tola – Thank you for extending yourself to me too:)! Keep being the blessing that you are:)! God bless you too Tola!

I hope you all have a wonderful and restful weekend!:)! Much Love & Blessings…

@Tracy – “God wants to use us and He knows so much more than I do where it’s best to use me…” – Exactly! He knows best….I loved your prayer, and I am saying a very enthusiastic Amen… Amen! He is a great God, he will help us to do what he wants us to do! Thank you very much Tracy!

@E – Thank you very much E!:)! Off to “tap into my weirdness” lol – I love that! Have a blessed day!

So, absolutely not – this note is not condoning any kind of wrong behavior, behavior that is not pleasing in God’s sight (whatever that might be), as just being “weird”. I’m so sorry you got that impression. Please allow me to share an example of the “weirdness” we are talking about in this article with you (and anyone else who might be wondering). There are several different examples I can think of but this is the first that came to mind–

A Canadian friend of mine told me once, years ago, when I lived in Canada, that she always found it extremely disturbing to see people of certain cultures kneel to greet other (older) people. She thought it was demeaning, and that it was as if those people were being worshiped. She was really uncomfortable with the whole thing, needless to say, she found it weird. I am African, and I am from one of those cultures where we will often kneel to greet people that are significantly older than us. Regardless of this “weird” behavior she noticed, she “extended herself” to me – after we started getting a little closer, she told me about her concern and I was very happy to explain to her that kneeling was absolutely not an act of worship, it was just a form of respect. Now many other people, from different cultures all over the world, will not find anything weird about this. They have similar customs so it’s absolutely normal to them. But to my friend, it was very weird, and I don’t blame her lol, she had never been exposed to anything like that before. Today, we are extremely close friends and even though she is still not necessarily on board with the whole “kneeling” thing, she has discovered that there’s a whole lot more to me and other Africans than just “those weird people than kneel”. LOL!:)!

I don’t think anyone can blame you for not allowing your children to keep hanging around people whose lifestyles you believe will be a bad influence. We have a responsibility as parents (Christian or not) to do our best to protect our children from bad influences, for their own good. Yes, we still teach our kids to love others, but loving someone doesn’t necessarily mean your children need to be hanging out with them or doing everything with them… especially since kids can be so easily affected by negative influences.

And that also applies to us parents/adults in some way. Yes, we have to be wise, if you know you have someone influencing you to do something that will not please God – eg if you have friends that constantly try to convince you to do wrong, or keep abusing you emotionally, physically, verbally, etc – absolutely – you need to take yourself out of that harmful situation! Taking yourself out of a dangerous situation does not mean you are not extending yourself or that you don’t love others.

Having said that, I still really want us to remember though – we do have a responsibility as Christians to extend ourselves to others, and love others, regardless of how they are living their lives, whether or not we approve of them, whether or not they are likable, kind, considerate etc. As Christians, we are commanded by God to love others, imitating God by living a life of love to others..and that includes everyone. I pray God will give us all the wisdom to truly live a life of love (even when it’s hard), without necessarily putting ourselves in dangerous situations. It can definitely be done:)! Thank you very much once again Eky!

Have a blessed Sunday everyone:)!

@Bingkee – Thanks for those great reminders about showing real and radical love, and how that glorifies God. Praying that we will always live lives that give glory to God, not just in our words, but in our deeds! Amen. Thank you very much Bingkee!

Weird can be used to cover a multitude of wrong behaviour in the name of ‘we are all different, let’s tolerate each other’ and this is dangerous. Evil is not weird, it is evil.Simple, and to avoid bad people, wrong-doers or those who will terribly influence us to begin to justify and condone wrong is only wisdom…so if your ‘weirdness’ for instance is that you love girls (and are a girl yourself i.e Alice and Eve) pardon me if I condemn your sexual orientation which to me is wrong and do not allow myself and my children come near you for fear that you will ‘taint’ our value system!