Time. Take Two.

It's 7:21 in the morning. Not a creature is stirring, except for me and the cats. Time zone changes will do that to a person. Or maybe just to me. So I am sitting here on my computer waiting for everybody else (whose bodies allow them to sleep in on vacation) to get up so we can go to breakfast! I guess it just gives me more contemplation time.

I was thinking again about time today and how things change constantly, and it made me stop to think about choices and how they affect us in time. Every action we make has a consequence, it's inevitable. It's part of God's plan for us. But knowing that all choices have consequences tied to them, God gave us an escape route. Because no matter who we are presently, He makes it about who we are trying to become or will be in the future.

Looking at others, it's so easy to judge based on past facts and personal perspective. But we don't have God's perspective. Just our own point of view. To us, when someone makes a mistake that is all that is outwardly apparent. Just the mistake. We don't get to see the person was facing their own unique set of problems or mindsets. Take our friend from Les Miserables. Jean Valjean is considered a hero by my standard. He was seen by those surrounding him as a thief for stealing bread. But he stole bread in a time of depression to feed his sister's children. While the law states it's wrong, it depends who you ask if it was really a crime. Some will side with the law, others will side with Jean. To me, it seems black and white. Forgiveness comes easily for me towards Jean Valjean, he was just doing something desperate in a desperate time. It comes easiest when we think about the mercy given to us from our wrong doings through the atonement.

So Jean Valjean spends his whole life doing good and honorable things, and still some cannot see him as more then a criminal. For a time he became embittered by the things he went through, but in the end he finds compassion to be the ultimate virtue. How many people do we see through time overcome vices and turn them into virtues. Such should be the consequence of time, and the ultimate struggle of life. And to me, it should be applauded. Just something to think about.

I could go on, but I am now going to spend my precious time getting ready for breakfast. YUM!!!