| "People think I'm just ___________." Have you ever had that thought cross your mind? You could fill in that blank with anything on any given day. "People think I'm just a smart kid" or "People think I'm just mean because I don't talk". It's so easy for people to think they know us or make assumptions that are wrong because they haven't taken the time to get to know us. They might judge us because we don't talk much or because we talk too much. We might be judged because we never smile or because we smile too much. The list can go on and on. Consider this: "...the reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been
made known." 1 John 3:1b-2a Jesus experienced much of that same phenomenon. People around him judged him based on any number of things because they never took the time to get to know him. What if we decided to do things differently? What if we withheld judgement; waiting just to know someone? What if we didn't pay attention to the fact that they don't make eye contact or smile? What if we fully paid attention to each person for who they really are? For the person inside that wants to be known; the person that wants to be loved and accepted. What if we did it differently? |
