{"id":1211,"date":"2015-11-11T00:32:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T06:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/?p=1211"},"modified":"2015-11-19T08:31:29","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T14:31:29","slug":"trampled-pearls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/?p=1211","title":{"rendered":"Trampled Pearls"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spend a lot of time thinking about things I have read, watched or discussed and wondering about interesting or different\u00a0connections. I love to call these long and extended thought processes my secret thoughts. \u00a0My sweet husband always listens faithfully, and sometimes I share them with others, but not often.<\/p>\n

One passage in the bible that I have been thinking about on and off for a while\u00a0is Matthew 8:28-32.<\/p>\n

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And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes,\u00a0two demon-possessed\u00a0men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.\u00a0And behold, they cried out, \u201cWhat have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?\u201d\u00a0Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them.\u00a0And the demons begged him, saying, \u201cIf you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.\u201d\u00a0And he said to them,\u00a0\u201cGo.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

What is the point of this? \u00a0Why are the pigs included? Originally\u00a0I\u00a0thought of\u00a0it as a followup to Leviticus when the Israelites were told not to eat the flesh of the pig. \u00a0I figured that this was further confirmation on how much God dislikes pigs, but this explanation never really felt right.<\/p>\n

Then this passage came up again and I was thinking about it immediately\u00a0on the heels of reading, Matthew 7: 7-8…<\/p>\n

\n

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.<\/span>\u00a0For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

And it occurred to me that the demons had\u00a0asked<\/strong> Jesus to send them\u00a0into the herd of pigs, and He had\u00a0given<\/strong> them their request. \u00a0Maybe what God is demonstrating\u00a0in this passage is that if even a demon can ask and then be given his request, then we must realize\u00a0how much more Jesus and Our Father in Heaven desire for us to ask<\/strong> so that They\u00a0can give<\/strong> us our request.<\/p>\n

Obviously I don’t know the answer, but I know my thoughts and I know the time put into\u00a0pondering and developing this secret thought\u00a0can be thought of as\u00a0time spent polishing a little pearl God buried within\u00a0my heart. \u00a0When I did share this thought with someone new, I finally experienced what it was like to cast\u00a0my pearls before swine. \u00a0My thoughts were trampled and dismissed and I was upset and hurt for a little while, but now after the hurt has passed I am left regretfully wondering whose pearls have I trampled<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Sweet Lord, please help us to tread gently\u00a0so that instead of trampling the pearls of others we might have a chance to discover\u00a0them, learn from them, admire them and cherish them! \u00a0Also please\u00a0help us to ask YOU<\/strong> with\u00a0full faith that YOU will give<\/strong>! \u00a0You have proven it time and time again… it is our memories that constantly fail!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spend a lot of time thinking about things I have read, watched or discussed and wondering about interesting or different\u00a0connections. I love to call these long and extended thought processes my secret thoughts. \u00a0My sweet husband always listens faithfully, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,298,130,123],"tags":[105,107,1540,54,67,1523,1524,980,1167,1430,92,1534,15,104,1522,1539,55,297,1530,1529,1531,1532,53,12,163,51,10,1527,1525,1528,1526,1538,1533,1537,1536,106,108,1535,495,197,52,16],"ppma_author":[2854],"class_list":["post-1211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-gratitude","category-humility","category-prayer","tag-ask","tag-ask-and-it-will-be-given-to-you","tag-ask-and-you-will-receive","tag-best","tag-christ","tag-do-not-cast-your-pearls-before-swine","tag-do-not-throw-your-pearls-to-pigs","tag-father","tag-find","tag-give","tag-god","tag-if-you-cast-us-out","tag-jesus","tag-knock","tag-knock-and-it-will-be-opened","tag-leviticus","tag-life","tag-lord","tag-matthew-7","tag-matthew-77-8","tag-matthew-8","tag-matthew-8-28-32","tag-my","tag-my-best-life","tag-open","tag-our","tag-our-best-life","tag-pearl","tag-pearls","tag-pig","tag-pigs","tag-polish","tag-receive","tag-secret","tag-secret-thoughts","tag-seek","tag-seek-and-you-will-find","tag-send-us-away-into-the-herd-of-pigs","tag-son","tag-thoughts","tag-your","tag-your-best-life"],"authors":[{"term_id":2854,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sbernadac","display_name":"Sarah Bernadac","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d6f6fd27725929c335efc2f3f617d947991447401cb02a573de4c068d7361377?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1211"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1223,"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions\/1223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1211"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ourbestlife.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=1211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}