Aug 29

1 Corinthians 10:23-24
23 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial.
24 Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others.

Q: What's the difference between boogers and broccoli? A: You can't make kids eat broccoli. Q: What's the difference between an elephant and spaghetti? A: Elephants don't slip off the end of your fork. Q: What's the difference between a mistake and a sin? A: Good question! OK, so the last one wasn't a joke. But it is a good question. A lot of people confuse mistakes and sins. Some feel guilty for mistakes that aren't sins. Others shrug off sins as "honest mistakes." It's possible to make a mistake and yet not sin. You may forget a person's name. You may hurt someone's feelings without meaning to. You may lose your permission slip for a school field trip. You may accidentally step on the dog's tail. None of those things are sins. They're mistakes. It's also possible to sin without making a mistake. You may call somebody a name. You may mean to hurt someone's feelings. You may hide your permission slip from your parents because you don't want to go on the school field trip. You may step on the dog's tail on purpose! Those things aren't mistakes. They're sins. It's important to know the difference between a mistake and a sin. Even more important is to react the right way to both. When you make a mistake, especially one that hurts someone else, it's natural to feel sorry. You may want to apologize for your mistake. But you don't need to feel guilty or ashamed. When you sin, you should feel remorse. You should admit that it was a sin, ask God (and anyone your sin hurt) for forgiveness, correct any effects of your sin (like paying for the dog's tail to get fixed!), and try to make a better choice-the right choiceÑthe next time. God doesn't expect you to never make a mistake, but he does command you (and he will help you) to avoid sin.

REFLECT: Think about the difference between a mistake and a wrong choice. Think about how you should feel if you made an honest mistake and how you should respond to sin. Have you made any mistakes for which you haven't yet apologized? Have you committed any sins for which you haven't received forgiveness? If you answered yes to either question, do the right thing now to correct your mistake or sin.

PRAY: "God, help me to remember the difference between mistakes and sins, and help me to avoid sin, especially in situations where..."

Hi guys
Joseph and I are going camping tomorrow
Pray we don't get raped by bears, raccoons, and other vicious creatures.

What I wanted to reflect on was the bible passage.
I just took note that we are allowed to do anything, because of God. He's never stopped us from doing this, or forced us to do anything. He's given us that freedom. That being said, like the bible says, not everything is wise. When I reflect to this, I feel like I should be constantly reminding myself to think twice of my actions or words. When you joke with your friends, I'm sure to an extent it's ok, depending on your relationship with said person. However, I have a habit of being overly mean I find, not with bad intentions.. most of the time, and that's something I should really work on. We all have our things to reflect on. We know what's beneficial for us, what's good for us, we could always think twice.

Its funny because todays devo relates to what happened today.
I finally grew the courage to apologize to one of the people in my school that I had a rough past with. I can't necessarily take all the blame, because we were both at fault. We actually used to be best friends but as soon as she entered gr.7 she thought she was so mature and did insane things a 13 year old should not do! I didn't want to hang out with her because I was worried she might influence me. She got really cheesed from that and we just avoided each other from then on.
At first I never wanted to speak to her again. I thought to myself I would never become friends with her and the things she did were unforgivable. I told myself it was all just a simple mistake and I could easily just ignore the whole situation.
Then this morning when I went to Cawthra (My high school) to get my schedule, I remembered she also got accepted for vocal in the RAP program. I decided this fight was not a mistake, it was a sin. We had bitter feelings towards each other for almost two years!
So I asked for her forgiveness, and then she asked for mine. I don't think we're friends still. We will most likely start again as acquaintances, and that is a lot better than fighting, right?
Thats all! Sorry if my devo is confusing :$
-Sarah

Not everything is beneficial... But we do it anyway. Because we can. Because God gave us the power to make those choices for ourselves.
But God didn't give us that power so we could abuse it, he gave it to us so we could do his will, because we want to and not because we have to. Remember that next time you want to do something bad, on purpose. It's fine if you make a mistake, but don't think you can pass off your sins as mistakes. What you do when you know you shouldn't.. just don't do it. Hahaha

When I was little, I used to think that sins were just mistakes that we make that the certain time.
I just lied to my parents and thought it was a mistake because I should've told the truth.
I'd hit my brother and I always thought it was a mistake.
But he'd NEVER hit back, with the kind and patient heart that he always had.
Although it is what we should've done, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a mistake.
We always have a choice.
God's love is a choice. Definitely not a mistake.

woowie blast to the past. last time i had trouble differentiating between mistakes and sins like the examples given was in like 2nd grade. that being said, I didn't get much from this, but I always do pray that i will be able to stop myself from sinning, and I always do what I can to fix honest mistakes, so yea.

sorry that im posting this now.........

I thought that this was quite similar to the lying story we had before. We try to say to ourselves it's alright and sometimes don't even notice what we have done. The difference between a mistake and sin is a very confusing but meaningful dicussion. As christians, we should do our best to live a clean, sinless life. Of course we've already sinned more than once. It's not easy to be sinless. The only one on earth that has never sinned before is Jesus.
It's very intresting if you do this:
At the end of each day, think about what were mistakes and what were sins you've done today. Learn from that and pray. Sometimes, certain sins will be stuck in your head and you wished that you would have never done that but its already too late. you can't go back, you can only move forward. So continue to listen to God and learn from your mistakes and try to avoid them.

That is all!

huh...my internet was supposed to be completely down until wednesday but my dad changed the internet cable thingy so that our interent doesn't go bazazz...
anyways! i thought that today's devo was really meaningful and reflects perfectly on some of my mistakes. actually, the past few days, i had a complete fall out with a couple of friends of mine because one was lying to me and my other friend (who used to be my best friend) saying that we were saying bad things about each other. now that is a sin. a sin is something that is committed knowing that you have done something wrong. now, me and my other friend have been bitter to each other ever since march. but i plucked up the courage with the encouragement of my mom and emailed her, telling the full story that was told on my side, we exchanged stories and found out that the "messenger" was lying. me and my friend made a mistake by falling into my other friends lie and we didnt approach each other about the situation.
ok, im not exactly sure if it made sense but i thought that this devotion really connected with my current situation.

I am pretty sure we all know what is good and what is bad. It should be obvious to us that killing, stealing, etc are all bad things and we shouldnt do them. We learned this when we were kids and we grew up to learn from our mistakes upon what is good and what is wrong. We also learned that if we ever make mistakes which impacts others we should apologize to them.

But with sin it is different. We may sin unintentionally and or do it by accident. Lying is a good example that everyone commits. They may lie for their own benefit or may lie just out of habit. But even so, we should always repent, and ask forgiveness for our wrong doings.