‘Anagram your name,’ they said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ they said.
Yeah thanks for that!

You mix up the letters of my name and yes, you get some fun nonsense, but smack bang in the middle of the list is raw truth – Annmarie Miles is an anagram for ‘I’m a lame sinner’. It’s up there with the joyful ‘mother-in-law’ anagram right?

How annoying that it happens to be true…

I know it’s an uncomfortable thought for many. To say that we inherently bad, and not ‘naturally’ good. I look at a brand new gorgeous baby and think, “how could there be anything but loveliness and goodness in that little life?” But though I’m not a parent, so can only speak from looking at my own life, and I can tell you this – I didn’t have to be taught to misbehave.  Nor does it seem like the small people I encounter have to be either. I didn’t have to be led towards trouble. I had to be led away from it. My natural disposition was (and in many ways still is) to veer away from the straight and narrow. I had to be taught manners, taught to share, and corrected when I didn’t do it. I don’t know any child who didn’t have to be taught to say please and thank you.

I know how greedy and lazy I can be. How ungenerous I am – and I’m not happy about it. But I don’t kick my self in the shins about it either. I’m a work in progress. I’m on a journey, one on which I stumble regularly – but I always get back up. I’m somebody with a past I cannot change and a future that is filled with possibilities. I’m someone who believes in the grace and forgiveness of the Almighty God.
I’m a lame sinner – on the road to recovery. 🙂

 

photo credits:
drinksmachine via photopin cc
Terry Rogers via Pinterest