A story is told of a young couple who moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning as they were seated in the dining table having breakfast, the young woman looked through the window and saw her neighbor hanging her laundry outside.“That laundry is not clean, “she whispered to her husband. “She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Possibly she is not using good laundry soap”. Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time the neighbor would hang laundry to dry, the young woman would make the same remarks.
A month later, the woman was surprised to see nice clean laundry on the line and said to her husband, “look, she has either learned how to wash correctly or someone has advised her on the right detergent. I wonder who taught her this!” The husband replied, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows”. They had not cleaned their windows since they moved into the new house.
And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the cleanliness of the window through which we look. It is easy to discuss other people, their lives and things that don’t really concern us. Yet we tend to forget our window that isn’t that clean after all. Let’s not be too quick to judge others, especially if our perspective of life is clouded by anger, jealousy, negativity or unfulfilled desires.
If we can change our perception, things immediately start looking different. Let’s clean up our window with the Word.
Luke 6:42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when 2 you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
By Magdaline Class of 2011