What Do You See?

Have you heard this story? A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. "That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap." Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: "Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?" The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows." Isn't it amazing how we are guilty of judging others? It is so easy to see the faults of others and not our own. The scripture warns us of that by reminding us that we often don't see the beam in our own eyes. Today I received an e-mail with accusations concerning some decisions I had made and those accusations really hurt me deeply. But as I took time to calm down and reflect, I realized that there were definite circumstances presently in the e-mail author's life which probably acted as "dirty windows" in observing and understanding my decisions. And what I need to do is handle the situation with love and understanding and make sure that my reactions and opinions aren't clouded by "dirty windows" in my life. Sometimes that is hard to do, but it is the way that Christ wants us to live and react. So let's be careful that we don't view others through "dirty windows" which might hide the truth.