What is Wrong

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. (Romans 12:9 NLT)

"Love the sinner, hate the sin." has been a popular aphorism for years. Some are trying to replace that with, "Love the sinner, why don't you hate your own sin?"

When I first saw the latter statement, I thought, we do.

I've had my fair share of moments of, "I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate." (Romans 7:15, NLT)

Hating all sin (ours and someone else's) does not diminish the fact that our love for people remains intact. 

For example, when one of my children smack the other one. I hate their actions but my love for them is not diminished to any degree. The same holds true for our Father. 

We are His dear children.  Made in His image. Imitating Him. His unfailing, unchanging love flowing through us enables us to love people while hating sin. We are not pretending to love or choosing to only love who we decide is "worthy" but we truly love others. True love covers a multitude of faults. (1 Peter 4:8)

What about you? Please let us know how a particular person truly loved you while hating sin.

(Ephesians 5:1)

(Genesis 1:27)

(1 John 4:8)

(Malachi 3:6)

My Children's Chazown

Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6, NKJV)

This past weekend I attended The Chazown Experience at www.legacykona.com. Please see prior blog post for more information.

In the class, I committed to use the Chazown Experience website (www.chazown.com) on an ongoing consistent basis in order to keep my priorities in line with what I learned in class. 

The Chazown Experience doesn’t focus on just one area of my life. It focuses on major key points keeping me aligned in order to fulfill the desired end result...the reason God created me.

This morning, as I was working on the website, I had a thought. 

What if, I had  the Chazown Experience when:

• I graduated college, or 

• graduated high school, or 

• before I entered college or high school? 

Then I went a step further, what if I had been given the Chazown Experience when I was a child?

Unfortunately, until I was in my late twenties, I had very little focus. For the most part, for almost thirty years, I lived day to day with little regard for my future. Thirty years is a long time.

Then I thought of my girls. God has given me the awesome privilege of training them up in the way they should go, insuring when they are old they will not depart from it.

Then my spirit leaped! I can walk my girls through the Chazown Experience now! So we started today! We are walking through our Chazown together! I am determined that this Fulton O’Hana will end up somewhere on purpose!

You are going to end up somewhere. The question is, will you end up somewhere on purpose?

I Just Saw Two Whole Hearts!

You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with your whole heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

My oldest daughter and I were pregnant at the same time. As awkward as that may seem to some, it has been one of the most amazing blessings and fun times of my life.

The children who we delivered, who are less than three months apart, pursue one another more than anyone I have ever experienced. When Gracie and Caley spend the night together, they insure they wake up two or three hours earlier than normal just so they can be together. To elaborate, two or three hours earlier than normal falls within the range of 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. To further elaborate, that is very early.

Their excitement doesn’t fade. If they spend a week together every day is spent staying up as late as possible and they are up again early every morning. Even when they are very tired, there is something that rises up and overrides their fatigue because they don’t want to lose any time with one another. When it is time for them to go to their own homes, they cry for one another and say, “But we didn’t even have enough time to play…”

It is highly uncommon for them to have a squabble but when they do, I tell them to separate for ½ hour. They both cry and plead with me not to separate them. Whatever the offense was, it is immediately overridden by the possible threat of them being separated. That’s true forgiveness!

When they are apart (we live in different towns) they draw pictures for one another, write each other notes, and save them for when they are reunited.

Last night, we watched a parade together then I took Gracie to a food court and we were waiting for my oldest daughter to bring Caley so we could have dinner. Gracie said, “I am just so excited! I’m just going to sit here and watch the door until Caley comes in!” And, she did.

When we walk together, they insure they are holding hands. When we eat, they insure they are sitting together. At the ripe age of six, they have already devised elaborate plans on how they are going to live together when they grow up. Currently, that plan includes sharing their home with lots of guinea pigs.

They consistently leave the family circle to spend one on one time with each other. Their relationship is quite amazing and one I find difficult to define.

I’m an early riser, today I was up before 6:00 a.m. True to form, Gracie and Caley were up playing quietly in the living room and had been for an undetermined amount of time. They had shut my bedroom door. I’m unsure if they wanted me to be uninterrupted or if they wanted to be uninterrupted.

Unbeknownst to them, I quietly observed them playing and my heart remembered Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” I wondered, had I ever sought God the way Gracie and Caley seek one another? I also wondered, had I ever worked as hard at my relationships as they do theirs?  Has my excitement about my relationship with Jesus ever faded?

Mahalo nui loa for the lesson girls, I'm going to go do some wholehearted seeking now.