Recently I saw a post that stated, “a lion never loses sleep over the opinions of sheep…” Now, isn’t that a terrific mindset. While lions don’t listen to sheep’s opinions, the same can’t be said for people. Are there ‘sheep’ in your world that you are listening to, that are telling you that you can’t (fill in the blank). Are you ‘minding’ the voices of those who really are pulling you down? ‘Why?’ springs to mind.
Granted I’ve not defined ‘sheep’ or ‘lion’ and I haven’t implied that you should act like or be a lion indiscriminately, but… there really are moments when you need to be a lion for your own life in order for you to become all that the Lord has planned for you. When? When compromise rears it’s head – and for the sake of some ‘peace’ you don’t stand up for your Lord, what He’s asking you to do or you don’t do what you know you should do.
A different type of ‘when’ is during those times that temptation comes your way. You can never say you were tempted by God because He tells us that this is something He never does. (James 1-12-16) v. 14 –
“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own
desires and enticed.”
And not wanting to cause ripples or conflict can easily be ‘own desires’. The only goal of temptation is to make you do or say (fill in the blank) that will only place you in the position of being disappointed in yourself and retracting your words and actions. Remember, a test is never a call to temptation, but temptation is always an opportunity to ‘stand’ (Ephesians 6:10-18)
Sheep can be plodding… remember the old saw is that we should count them if we can’t sleep? But, if they are the source of our sleeplessness – that probably won’t work. Are you losing sleep and it’s because of sheep-causing conflict? Have you honestly looked at the sheep’s comments? Valid? If so, then reconsider what you are proposing to do. If not, why are you letting them cause you to lose sleep?
