A Dollar Short

When I was growing up many of the stories I read would always end up with; “And the moral of the story is” and then they explained what the point was they were trying to make.

They did this to either make sure I got the point or reinforce what I understood. Whatever the case was I depended heavily upon the moral of the story.

Another thing I depended on was sayings that had a measure of wisdom within them. These sayings help mold me into to the mess I am or at least I blame it on them. Some of my favorites are;

There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money. ~ Benjamin Franklin
(I got two of those things right).

Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. ~ Winston Churchill

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. ~ Oscar Wilde

All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed. ~ Sean O'Cassey

So many more, but the one that is like Paul’s throne in the flesh and that continues to goad me is;

"A day late and a dollar short”.

This saying continues to point out my inadequacies each time I could have done better which is most often.

My retort to that demeaning thought hardly mitigates the distress it brings to the table.  Still I am able to function without perfection and meet the requirements of others with the same defect which is in most of us.

The truth of the matter is; we are an imperfect people, living in an imperfect world without any remedy except one. This remedy is rejected by too many without a proper hearing.

This remedy makes us perfect in the only court that counts, in the sight of GOD. This attained perfection in GOD’S sight demands and challenges us to perfect our lives through our conduct before the world.

Matthew 5:48 Be then complete in righteousness, even as your Father in heaven is complete.

It’s not “To be or not to be”- - it is TO BE.  Although GOD will accept us being an hour late and a few cents short, the goal must always be to be on time and fully paid up.

One last thing to remember; when the wine goes in, strange things come out!