What Makes Us Who We Are? Part 1

    I'd like you to take a moment with me and think of three times when you didn't respond to a situation well, and three times when you did.
   What comes to mind?  Even grab a journal and write them down if you want to!

   What about that time you shared with someone?  Or when you didn't have enough money, so you stole something from the store?  The time you talked badly about a friend because they'd hurt your feelings?  Or when you helped a stranger simply out of the goodness of your own heart?
    As you write these down, look as if you're an outsider.  Can you forgive yourself for the poor choices, are you touched by the good ones?

    I thought about this today, because if our actions really define us, looking back--from human standards--can we see our true essence?  A bunch of bad choices?  A life lived for the sake of others seeing that we always chose correctly?   
    Will looking at the good make any of these bad choices seem better?
    Or am I looking at this wrong?  Doing this exercise, will we see something more: 
    Imagine a computer programmer who makes a program designed to alter photos to look like paintings. He's intentionally made the transformation process a bit flawed, hoping the final computer product will look man-made.  Is this how God engineered us, to be perfectly flawed?

    I'll post a story about a "bad choice" tomorrow.
    But at the end of this exercise, I hope a greater point will be made.
    Until tomorrow. . . .