We’ve all heard the saying don’t judge a book by its
cover but what does that really mean? In
a simple way it means that we shouldn’t judge something by the way it looks or
seems to be. It is only natural as human
beings to make judgements about things.
We constantly make assumptions about things from what we see, hear and
experience. But what about when we make
judgements without looking deeper than surface appearances?
When we first meet someone we usually have a “feeling”
about that person and quite quickly decide whether or not we like that person
and could get to know him or her as a friend.
That decision is most often made with little or no knowledge about the
person, their character or background.
People act and react in different situations for many
different reasons. Their behaviors and
characters are molded by their personalities and the experiences of their
past. No two people have exactly the same life experiences, thoughts or
emotions.
Let’s imagine that each of us has a biography of our
lives, a book that has been written to record every moment of our life. Every laugh, every tear, every thought and
emotion, every thing that we have ever done, seen, heard or experienced is
recorded in one book. (Pretty scary? Most of us probably wouldn’t want our
books to be read by others?) Each day
another page is written and each year another chapter completed.
I read a story once about a teacher who had a very
difficult child in her class and didn’t like him very much because of his bad
behavior. She was writing the child’s
report card when she decided to check his school records. She discovered that two years ago the boy’s
father had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and the following year after
watching his father slowly deteriorating the father had passed away. This put and entirely different perspective
on the way the teacher treated the child. By the end of the year the child was
the best student in the class.
God can heal our broken hearts, our damaged souls and
help us to overcome our past, but it does take time. It takes time for us to change and grow and
be molded into the image of Christ. It
can be very difficult to love the unlovely, or those people who we don’t get on
with or understand but the way we behave and react towards others can have a
great effect on their future. What we say or do to a person, how we react
towards them or judge them can change their whole future.
A gentle word of encouragement or a helping hand can
make a huge impact on the life of an individual. Rather that tearing someone down because they
have made a mistake or behaved inappropriately forgive them, forget their
faults and reach out your hand and help them, learn to work with them and see
them the way God sees them. Learn to understand them, find out what has already
been written in their book of life. Never forget they too are God’s children.
We are one in the body of Christ. When your fellow Christian is hurting the
whole body is affected.
Jesus commands us to love one another, to forgive one
another and to judge ourselves before we judge others. Jesus loves us so much
that He gave His life for us before we even knew Him. All he wants us to do is
to give of ourselves to bless others and forgive others their faults and sins
against us.
Take some think about your thoughts and actions toward
others. Have you made judgements and assumptions about them without truly
knowing anything about them or what has made the person they are today? Have you worked to help them, or have you
helped to pull them down? Are you
walking in the love of Christ?
And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to
them likewise. Luke 6:31
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