STELLA IN THE DREAM ZONE PART 2

Fools think they are doing right Proverbs 12:15a (NCV)

      The tongue can cause us a lot of problems. In Stella’s first adventure into the Dream Zone, her tongue turned poisonous and as a result she lost her best friend. If she had only woke up than things might have gotten better. Instead, things got worse.

     Attempting to get her friend back, Stella frantically wandered around hollering for her Mom. She was sure that her Mom would be able to make Bernadette be her best friend again. When she finally found her mom out in the garden she started to tell her about Bernadette but her poisonous tongue wouldn’t let her.

     “Yuck,” she said to her mom, “What kind of an ugly dress is that? Why it’s so ugly I wouldn’t want to be caught dead around you. Are you in some kind of ugly dress contest?” Now Martha, that’s Stella’s mom’s name, didn’t like Stella’s poisonous tongue and quickly let her know that was not a proper way to talk to her mom or anybody else.

     Unfortunately for Stella, she didn’t listen. Instead she kept getting worse. “I really don’t care what you say.” she told her mom. “I will talk the way I want to talk. I’m my own self and you can’t tell me what to do or rule my life.”

     Now Stella’s dad was working on a brush pile on the other side of the house when her heard Martha call for him. When he got to the garden, Martha was almost in tears. “Bill, you need to have a talk with Stella, she’s having a problem with her tongue and she is being very sassy.”

     Before Bill had a chance to say anything to Stella she started talking mean to him too. “Why don’t you go back to your job, you, you, over grown gorilla, and leave me alone.” Stella told him. “I’m not going to listen to you either. I can do anything I want to. I know what I am doing.”

     Instead of arguing with Stella, Bill simply said “You really think you know what you’re doing, you really want to be left alone, than good bye.” And than poof, he disappeared and so did Martha. Startled and somewhat scared by her parents strange disappearance, Stella went looking for her mom and dad but she couldn’t find them anywhere, her wish had come true, she was all alone and she started to cry.

     Did she really want them gone? Did she really know what she was doing? A voice that seem to come from nowhere said “Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

      People will be rewarded for what they say, and they will also be rewarded for what they do. Fools think they are doing right, but the wise listen to advice.

Proverbs 12:14-15 (NCV)

     No one would ever talk to their parents like that would they? After all the Bible tells us time and time again to "Honor your father and your mother." Recently I heard of a talk show host that said she found it liberating to know she didn't have to love her mom. How foolish people have become thinking they know the correct way to do things.

     When we think we know the right way to live, when we think we know what we are doing we need to beware lest we end up like Stella.

• All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, But the LORD weighs the motives. - Proverbs 16:2 (NAS)
• If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; - 1 Corinthians 8:2 (NAS)
• For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. - Galatians 6:3 (NAS)
• Fools think they are doing right, but the wise listen to advice. - Proverbs 12:15 (NCV)
• There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. - Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)

     When it comes to actually living the right way, to actually doing things right we can again turn our thoughts towards God's word.

• Jesus said* to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. - John 14:6 (NAS)
• Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, "He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS"; and again, "THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS." - 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 (NAS)
• Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. - Proverbs 3:5-7 (NAS)

     Here's Something to Ponder

• Ask yourself if you really know what you are doing
• Are you looking to the Lord for direction