My girls love to help me in the garden. This can be good and bad. My youngest likes to pull up plants which I have purposely placed in the garden, which I would qualify as un-gardening. My middle girl likes to pick flowers off of the plants that are growing in the garden, which isn’t helpful, but also isn’t terrible, because the plants will grow new flowers.

My oldest likes to put plants into the garden which are actually blooming weeds that she dug up out of the yard. We disagree on whether this is beneficial for the garden. Maya says that they are flowers, they are beautiful, and they should be in the garden.

I know that just because a plant blooms, that does not mean I want it growing in my garden. Those weedy blooms have one purpose- to spread more weedy seeds into my garden and grow more unwanted plants. But don’t try to convince my daughter. She can give me all the reasons why the plant she found is the exception and should be allowed into the flower bed.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8-9, NIV

We are masters at justifying sin for several reasons. The first reason is that we want to be able to do what we want to do with a clear conscience. We can come up with so many reasons why our particular circumstance or situation is different from what Jesus meant to say in the Bible.

The second reason we are so convincing to ourselves is that we are looking at our sin from the wrong perspective. We ask, “What is wrong with what I am doing/saying/thinking?” We allow each action to remain innocent until proven guilty. Instead, the Bible teaches us to take the opposite stance.

In the verses above, we are instructed to take each thought and hold it up against the very best, the qualities demonstrated by Christ Himself, and then determine it as worthy or unworthy. There are many actions which the world would not consider to be bad, that we simply cannot continue doing if we are serious about following Christ.

When my daughter finds a tiny flowering weed in the grass, it looks good in comparison. But when she places the same weed next to the profusely blooming flowers in the garden, it is easy to see it for what it truly is. In the same way, when we hold our thoughts and actions up against those of the world, they may not seem so bad, but when held up to the standard of Christ, they are obviously lacking.

Father, thank you for sending Jesus as an example of how to live. Help me to fine tune my discernment of what is right and wrong. Don’t let me fall into a game of justification. Help me to set my standard for comparison by the Bible, and not by the world.

What action or thought have I been justifying that doesn't meet the standard of Christ?

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