I would have to ask - what was your intent from the beginning? Were your warnings said out of love and compassion and as genuine concern because you knew the outcome could be detrimental? I mean, I kind of liken this (thanks to GraceLikeRain) like the fox and the chicken. Let's say the fox was a compassionate and loving fox with a conscience and with a penchant for gin rummy. He plays cards with a chicken, but warns him often, out of genuine friendship that if he hangs around with the fox too long, then he stands a chance of getting eaten. He is a fox, afterall. The chicken seems to fully understand and will often cock his head to listen for taletell stomach rumblings, not play him at all at dinner times and watches for chick filet commercials. All is fine until one day the chicken was dealing cards and had his hands full when the fox leaned over and broke the poor chickens neck and ate him. The fox felt horrible about his friend's demise, but also satisfied and had thought his friend tasted delicious.
Now if the fox claimed he was a vegan and deceived his friend, the chicken would still be eaten, but the fox would be untrustworthy and not held in high esteem.
Didn't God warn Pharoah...
[FONT=kepler-std !important]Genesis 41:28-3[/FONT]2"It is as I have spoken to Pharaoh: God has shown to Pharaoh what He is about to do. "Behold, seven years of great abundance are coming in all the land of Egypt; and after them seven years of famine will come, and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will ravage the land.
And even tell us what NOT to worry over?
[FONT=kepler-std !important]Matthew 24:6-7[/FONT]
"You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.
and yet so many don't listen? Not like He didn't warn us....
So, MissCris, the way I see it is that I thought your warning was just and you are, therefore, blameless when someone does not heed your warnings. However! The change you might seek for yourself is another matter altogether and another subject. If you wonder why you could still potentially hurt someone in the same ways you have in the past and wish this "flaw" to be resolved, then you are the fox that wishes to became the vegan. That's the hardest change there is.
You remember in "Finding Nemo" when Nemo's dad confronted the 3 sharks? The sharks had changed and decided to not eat other fish. The temptation for the sharks was still there and Marlin looked mighty tasty, but except for one brief weak moment, the sharks were able to control their cravings. See, to me, that was the greatest change - the sharks! It wasn't so much that Marlin began to change and see that his little boy Nemo was growing up and could take care of himself, but it was the sharks that denied themselves; the beast within - the destructive behavior that you now recognize as harmful and a thing now you wish to change for the Glory of God. That, to me, is the greatest change. It's the soul that has tasted the fruit and changes so that they never taste it again. More powerful (in my worldly mind) than the soul that denies themselves from ever tasting it at all.
[FONT=kepler-std !important]Genesis 2:16-17[/FONT]
The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.
He is God afterall.....