More thoughts

I'm hoping I haven't already posted these thoughts. I can't find anything like this in my quick search through old posts. Oh well, if I have posted it again, I don't suppose it will hurt anything to re-post.
     When you are tired or sick or weary from life's battles, you can find peace in loving arms or in your own safe space. That is the kind of peace I would like to have all of the time. But, if I were to have peace all of the time, would it become boring to me? Challenges are good to provide motivation and energize us. It's when they are endlessly unconquerable that even any inner peace we may fall back on disappears.
     Jesus said there are only 2 churches... 2 masters....2 choices: His way or Satan's way. Despite all of us being different (straight or curly hair, write books or build buildings, prefer pink or yellow), if we are to ever have true peace with anybody but ourselves, there needs to be an ultimate standard to live by. We may not find every detail immediately but if there is a standard, we can all work towards it. Satan would prefer ultimate political correctness involving boundless tolerance allowing any and all choices of words and behaviors. Without rules, nobody would ever be wrong. Without standards or goals, nobody could ever fail or feel guilty. But really, what would that be like? What if a child who wants to share and take turns were to play with a child who won't, or doesn't believe he should have to? Bring that up a level- what if a person who wants to save sexual intimacy for marriage dates someone who doesn't think it matters? What if a group of people wants to live on a piece of land and another group wants that same piece? How could anyone who wants peace live with anyone who always wants things the way they have decided it should be? We are all different so whose standard do we use? Must peace be achieved only by giving in to the one who argues best or bullies most? Without individual determination to accept rules, there can be no peace for more than one person at a time. The longer we live, the more experiences we have. Through experience we can begin to notice how things generally work best- that is wisdom. However, as mortal beings, our mental capacities established in our brain are prone to deteriorate as is all of our physical being. So, if we doubt those who are older as having worthwhile wisdom, who can we look to for guidance or reassurance?
     Without standards/rules (Satan's way) there must be eternal chaos with everyone wanting everyone else to live according to their individual whims. With standards/rules developed from experience (which nobody could just be born with), wisdom, love, peace, and harmony can be achieved. It will not be boring because we all continue to be different and continue to learn and grow and share with each other ideas of how to achieve standards of perfection.
     Each human is born without knowledge or established opinion. Over time our experience, observation, and listening combine with individual choice of analysis and perception to determine who we are and what appeals to us. Ultimately, if we choose to prefer greed, we will want to justify our own standards to get what we want even it if means others get less than we do. If we choose laziness, we will be inclined to want and expect others to do work, justifying to ourselves that they "like it" more or "it's their job". If we choose to justify anything others may consider wrong, we tend to trivialize or even try to eradicate rules so we can convince others to accept things the way we want.      It seems to be the traditional concept that Satan achieves his power by forcing others by threat, fear, or anger. Truly, those are tactics that many who would follow Satan's way of thinking might use. However, Satan's most devious and effective tactic is to lull mortals into accepting everything and anything- no rules that might require sacrifice or effort to follow. He pacifies them into thinking rules are too restrictive or exclusionary. He also numbs people into thinking we shouldn't be shocked or repulsed by sex, violence, or immorality of others, even those serving as leaders.
     We truly all have the right and responsibility to choose our personal standards in living. I think it would behoove all of us to deeply consider the ramifications of what we promote as appropriate standards either through voicing opinion or setting example. Judging other individuals is NOT the same as determining right and wrong. We can recognize an individual's actions or words as destructive (bad) without declaring the person as bad or worthy of God's punishment. "Vengeance is mine" saith the Lord. We can leave the determination of punishment up to Him but we do need to figure out for ourselves how to avoid a similar punishment by committing the same errors.