Focused on the wrong thing...
Dear Friend,
I was in the grocery store the other day. And I was focused. Going up and down each isle skillfully maneuvering the cart. When all of a sudden I turn the corner, and a lady and her husband were standing perfectly in the middle of the isle. He was looking at something on the shelf, but she was standing and staring straight ahead. At first I gave her a chance to move, waiting patiently with a smile on my face. But, she never moved. She just looked straight ahead like I wasn’t standing there. Unfortunately, I began to allow all thoughts run through my head...”How rude!?! She’s just standing there looking at me and she knows I need to get by and she won’t move!”
Then, I slowed down and I heard the Holy Spirit say, “Look a little closer.”And when I looked there was a white (support cane) hidden behind the cart. I felt my heart sink!!!! God, this woman was blind! She wasn’t doing this on purpose. She wasn’t out to be rude. How sobering?!?! I have work to do!
In 1 Corinthians 13 He gives us the framework for our love walk.
4Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I thought...I loved like He loves. But I realized in that moment that I don’t. Love hopes for the best. Love thinks the best. Love is patient. This wasn’t a moment for me get down on myself. It was just a moment for me to see where I really was and now ask God to help do something about it through His Word, Prayer, and Grace!
Today, slow down and look a little closer...and remember (Jess) be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. James 1:19
Under construction,
Jess
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