Friday, September, 13, 2013: "COME TO ME AND REST. Give your mind a break from its habitual judging." Friday, September 13, 2013: Matthew 7 The Message (MSG) - 7 1-5 “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.” I love to watch Judge Judy…she cracks me up. I think what I like about her is that she has absolutely no tolerance for some of the people who choose to put their “outright stupidity” out there in front of 10 million people. I look at them and wonder how they could be so completely ignorant about basic things. Her questions seem so elementary that it makes me squirm when I know the response is going to be something just downright embarrassing! Almost every time, I feel like I’m right with her – I understand why she asks the questions she asks and where she is going with her specific line of interrogation. Her questions seem reasonable to me. But, every once in a while, she will start down one road and I feel pretty sure that one person is about to bite the dust when she asks a question that changes my initial thought of them. I was wrong. I was thinking about it one day when someone lost and had to pay back $500. What if I would have been sitting in that chair and made the wrong decision? How many times have I been so sure of myself because of my upbringing, history or education, only to realize that I had “jumped to a conclusion” or was just outright wrong based on a previous notion or prejudiced idea? So, back to my first paragraph…since I can be so quick to make an assumption about people that I see as ignorant – how about people who look at me like I’m one of Judge Judy’s Plaintiff or Defendant? Undoubtedly there are people who look at me wondering about my “outright stupidity” that I put out there for everyone to see. We all do. God calls us to leave the judging to Him. We only get one piece of the puzzle of life at a time, while God can see the entire picture. We may think we are absolutely right about things or people, but that judgment is based on such a small amount of data – wouldn’t we really do better to just focus on the relationship God has called us to vs. making decisions about things we really don’t have all the information for? As we look around this coming week and find ourselves making those comments in our mind – let us be reminded that we will be judged as we judge others. So this week – why don’t we all try saying a prayer for the person we may have just made a quick judgment about, and hope that those who may see us with our “outright stupidity” will do the same. Teresa French youtube/watch?v=P5AkNqLuVgY
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 12:13:42 +0000
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