God isn't a bully and we aren't ants

Sometimes it can be easy to picture God as a bully over an ant hill, picking out unsuspecting and helpless ants to burn with his giant magnifying glass. Especially as women, we almost always think most (or magnify) all of the things we don't have or do or do well enough. My house isn't clean enough. I don't read my scriptures enough. I don't spend enough quality time with my kid. The list goes on and on and on. We feel frustrated and judged. After all, God is the ultimate judge and He expects perfection. And we all know that Jane next door has already achieved perfection with her spotlessly clean home and charming family home evenings. So that means God must be looking at me through his magnifying glass and seeing all the dirty laundry and potentially inappropriate media in my living room.

While I don't believe that God will turn a blind eye to my shortcomings, I do believe the perception of Him as a bully spending His time in the heavens tallying up every mistake I make and waiting for the next one, laughing as I squirm under his magnifying glass, is also wrong.

John 3:16 is perhaps one of the most famous and oft quoted scriptures in all of Christianity (I'm totally making that up, I have no evidence). "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Hallelujah! But that's not all. John 3:17 (by my uniformed estimation probably the least famous and least oft quoted scripture in all of Christianity) tells me God's motivations. "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." I am not an unsuspecting and helpless ant. God is not a bully with a magnifying glass. He is my loving Father who wants me to return safely to Him. He watches me, not to burn me on my mistakes, but to make sure I'm ok. He gave me a Savior because He knew I couldn't do it alone. I mess up every day and that's ok. He does expect perfection. But not right now, and not by my work alone, and certainly not perfection compared to Jane next door.

I probably spend a little too much time thinking about all the things I do wrong and how I can fix them. I need to do plenty of repenting in my life, but not alone, and not out of fear of punishment, and not so I can live up to Jane next door! God loves me so much that He sent me a savior, my older brother, to help me. He loves me so much that he sees the good with the mistakes. His work and glory are to bring me back to Him to receive immortality and eternal life. There are plenty of bullies on the earth. God certainly isn't one of them.