PREJUDICED CONCLUSIONS...

Good morning bloggyville!! I am feeling much better now thank you. High on paint fumes - which is probably why - but none the less, feeling better.

I have been thinking alot lately about prejudism and drawing our own conclusions of other people. And I cannot tell you how often I have caught myself looking at someone in a shop or a parking lot and judging them. Like last night for instance we were driving to gym and a young couple was taking their little girl for a walk and she was running way ahead of them and I immediately thought to myself "I would never allow my child to run so far ahead of me. Look at how busy this road is, can't they keep her closer so she'll be safer?" And before I knew it I was judging them, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with me. This morning I was listening again to a song (which I will share with you in a moment) and it struck me so hard that we are all created in God's image - and equal, and that we are not here to judge each other, but to love each other. What and who gives us the right to assume we are better than somebody else just because of the clothes we wear or the ideas we have. Somebody who lives on the street is not loved any less by God, nor am I loved more because of where I live!
Somebody with an addiction problem is not loved less by God because of that. And I am not loved more because I don't have that problem. We don't know the history or the life story of strangers we meet - yet we are so drawn by our own conclusions of them that we immediately judge them and assume they are something they are not. Can you see what I am saying.

This song also struck me because I tend to have a very high opinion of myself. And I would often think to myself that had I perhaps lived in the time of Jesus - I would have known who He was and I would never have doubted Him! How can I be so sure? I can say that so easily now, because of what I have learned - yet I was brought back down to earth when I realised that I might not have known or believed who and what He was. I may have been one of those who dismissed Him as a madman. I may have been as proud as I am now and so sure of myself that I would have been blind to the truth.

I suddenly realised that I need to rethink everythng in my life! The way I see other people, the way I see myself and the way I treat strangers that I may come into contact with throughout the day.

I no longer have such a high opinion of myself - and I am working on it everyday so that I never get to that self inflated stature that I was before. And now I try very hard to love (The biblical Agape love) everyone that I come into contact with, withut judging them or laughing at them cause of what they may be wearing or because how they speak or their religion or whatever else it may be. I try very hard to no longer judge people. I want to leave a lasting Jesus Impression on people I meet everywhere everyday. And I want to be real, genuine and true.

WIDE-EYED (by Nicole Nordeman)

Well I met him on a sidewalk
He was preaching to a mailbox
Down on 16th Ave.
And he told me he was Jesus
Sent from Jupiter to free us,
With a bottle of tequila and one shoe.
He raged about repentance .
He finished every sentence
With a promise that the end was close at hand.
I didn't even try to understand.

He left me wide-eyed
And disbelieving, disillusioned.
I was tongue tied
Drawn by my conclusions
And so I turned and walked away
And laughed at what he had to say
And casually dismissed him as a fraud
I forgot he was created in the image of my God

Well I met her in a book store
She was browsing on the first floor
Through a yoga magazine.
And she told me in her past life
She'd been some plantation slave's wife
And she had to figure out what that might mean.
She believes the healing powers of her crytals
Can bring balance and new purpose to her life
Sounds nice....

She left me wide-eyed
And disbelieving, disillusioned.
I was tongue tied
Drawn by my conclusions
And so I turned and walked away
And laughed at what she had to say
And casually dismissed her as a fraud
I forgot she was created in the image of my God

Not so long ago
A man from Galilee
Fed thousands with His bread
And His theology
And the truth He spoke
Quickly became the joke
Of educated, self inflated pharisees like me

They were wide-eyed
And disbelieving, disillusioned.
They were tongue tied
Drawn by their conclusions
Would I have turned and walked away
And laughed at what He had to say?
And casually dismissed Him as a fraud
Unaware that I was staring at the image of my God...

I guess the point I am trying to make is that everyone we meet should be treated with almost as much respect and love as we would treat God if He was to walk into our shop or home or simply down the street. For as the Bible says - "whatever you have done to the least of the [people] you have done it unto me."

God bless you all, I shall be back soon!!
MUA! MUA!