What Often Gets In The Way Of People With Good Intentions

Betsy Guerra reflects on how rigid rules, religious teachings, and well-meaning advice from loved ones can backfire. She uses Jesus healing on the Sabbath and a story about her daughter's school assignment to argue that rules should serve people, not the other way around, and that compassion and personal discernment matter more than blind obedience.
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Lets talk about what often gets in the way of people with good intentions. We all have people in our lives who love and support us dearly and yet don't always have the best advice or perspective. And I've learned that in many ways, good things in life, like belief and religious beliefs in particular, contribute beautiful things to our lives, beautiful lessons. But when we don't understand them in context, or when we take them literally, as opposed to experiencing them through the lens of God himself and the God within us, we fail to interpret them in a godly way and do so in a more human and worldly way. Let me explain what this means. There are rules and dogmas in our faith that are meant to help us and support us. But when we take them out of context, they hurt us and they have us hurt other people as well. And I want to share a story that I think may illustrate this and provide some guidance. There was this guy who knew that the law was to not work on the Sabbath and to not do anything outside of the ordinary, instead to worship and to be still. The Sabbath was a day for stillness. And this dude, his name was Jesus, decided that he was going to heal the sick on a Sabbath which was forbidden. And people died for not respecting the Sabbath, right? Like this was like a big deal. And he saw, there's someone, you know, suffering, there's someone who needs my help, I can heal them, why not? And he went ahead and he healed the sick and he helped other people. And he was just doing acts of kindness and love on the Sabbath when it was forbidden. And he said that the Sabbath was created for men, not meant for the Sabbath. And what that means is that rules, dogmas, regulations, laws are created to support us as humanity, to help us, to better us, so that there's some order. Rules and laws are good, but they're not a one size fits all. And they don't apply to every city, circumstance. There are times in which following the rule or the law is not as elevated and valuable and important as showing love, showing compassion, going out of your way to support and serve someone. And we get to remember Jesus and the Pharisees from back then, right? The Pharisees followed the rules, followed the law. They were like the embodiment of that law. And Jesus believed in those rules and laws. But whenever love and rules were at odds, he always chose love. And the people who love and support us oftentimes mean well. They have the best intentions, they want what's best for us. And what they know is the law. It's the rules, you know, no, don't take that risk to build your own business because you, you know what if you lose everything? They're scared for you, right? They're protecting you. And they say like, no, but don't make that decision or don't invest that much money. That's too much money. But they're not putting the idea or the decision in context. Too much money. Like let's say you want to invest on a program that's going to educate you so that you can pursue your purpose in your career. And the program is $10,000. But investing those $10,000 could mean that you make hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars because now you have the competence, the education, the ability to put it into practice, to serve others and make a living out of it. But your parents and the minds in general, by the way, and I'm saying the parents because sometimes it's our parents, but it could be anybody who loves us or even our itty bitty shitty committee in our heads. We, right, like our limiting beliefs also do that for us. They have the best intentions of protecting us, but they don't have the divine wisdom that surpasses human understanding. They don't necessarily have the experience of having invested on something that seems expensive but could multiply and benefit you deeply. So my invitation today is for you to use your God given wisdom to determine if you're going to be like Jesus or if you're going to be a rule follower like the Pharisees. Are you going to just take something for its face value because someone who loves you told you? Or are you going to filter that through your faith and asking God to help you interpret that, to give you the grace, the wisdom and the discernment to evaluate it? And I have to say like, I grew up with a lot of like very strong religious beliefs and I love my faith and my religion. Don't take me wrong. But I've had to unlearn a lot of things that I've learned that came from following guidelines without reflecting, reflecting on why they were created in the first place. When I remember one day my daughter came to me, she's in a Catholic school and she had, she had to write like a preaching and using a scripture. And she chose the weddings at Cana. And she said her reflection was, the lesson was that you should obey your parents at all costs. Like Jesus obeyed his mom in his, you know, when he was going to perform his first, first miracle. And I told her, mama, this is beautiful. But just so you know, Although Mommy thinks she's God sometimes, and she knows more than anybody. Mommy is just human and you should not obey me at all cost. I'd rather you connect with the God within you and let him guide you. And he guides you through peace, through inspiration, like He. He put things in your heart and in your mind. And when those things are really strong and you know they're coming from your connection with God, you listen to those above your mom, I may be mad. You may be. You know, I may punish you, scold you. But in the end, if you come to me and you tell me God told me this, that to me is more important than anything. And the example I gave her is if the teacher at school tells you you have to be in a straight line when we're walking in the hallway, just. Just make sure you stay in the line. Don't get out of the line. And that's the rule. That's the law that you need to follow. But while you're in that line, you see that there's a kid who fell, and you feel compelled to go help that kid get out of the line. If you get in trouble, I'll go support you. I'll go speak to the teachers. I'll do whatever I need. But it is important that you always are guided by the God within you, and not just the rules. Because the rules have a context and have a purpose, and they're important. But your relationship with God and the wisdom that he gives you is above all of those things. So if you want some guidance and help in connecting with the God within you, subscribe to the channel, learn more from my videos. And if you need anything else, we're happy to support you at betterwithbetsy. Com.
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