I ran across some places on the web that talk about what a woman should look for in a man to marry. So if you're single and looking for a man to marry some tips are here. Tip #3 stuck out to me.
"A young lady should seek a young man who…Can admit his faults, his mistakes, and when he's hurt you. Ruth Bell Graham made the statement, "A good marriage is the union of two forgivers." The reason is because you're going to hurt one another over and over again during your lifetime together. If you don't know how to ask for forgiveness and give forgiveness, you're never going to have a great marriage. The growth of your marriage will be stunted early on."
A good man is one who can admit his faults. I would go further and say a good Christian is one who can admit his faults. Being able to admit our faults comes from a proper understanding of grace. Until we believe God will forgive our faults, we won't bring them out into public. We will never receive healing until we acknowledge and face our faults head on.
And I will go even further and say that a healthy church is one that knows its faults. A church that cannot say what its problems are is a church that is a dangerous place to be in. If I'm interviewing someone for a job and they don't give me any real weaknesses that they have, I'm not going to hire them. The good person, like a healthy church, knows where they need to grow. It's only where you know where you're weak that you can work in such a way that your weakness is minimized.
I once heard an illustration about a lion on the hunt. A lion finds a pack of zebras in a field. In order for the lion to get his food he only needs to be faster than the slowest zebra. Here is a great article that explains the way a Lion hunts. We, as a church, are like the pack of zebras. But we need to stand up and fight against our weaknesses, whatever they may be, and not allow our weakness to spread like cancer throughout the body.
A blind person would be a very stupid person if he tried to live as if he wasn't blind. He would hop in a car and begin driving it down the road until he ran over a few mailboxes and into a house. He would run around a grocery store knocking everything down. A blind person would be very stupid if he acted like he wasn't blind.
If churches don't grasp grace, examine themselves, and consciously and verbally acknowlege their weaknesses, they will never reach the place God intends them to be. The same can be said about our personal lives. We need to know our faults in order to grow. The spiritual growth of our church and our lives will be stunted as soon as we fail to acknowledge our faults.
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking who he may devour. (I Peter 5:8)"
Watch out for the potholes.
