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Monday February 10 - Mistakes: Planks or specks?
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye...?”
Matthew 7:3
Last year I was driving round a roundabout when another car pulled on to the roundabout and ‘cut me up’. “What dangerous, arrogant driving,” I thought. In the privacy of my own car I tutted and muttered “Idiot!” and was just about to deliver a well-deserved dirty look when I noticed that the driver was one of my school-gate mum friends, to whom I had been trying to witness the love of Jesus! I quickly recoiled from the ‘evil eye’ I was about to give her, and instead gave a friendly and forgiving wave! It’s not to say that her driving was not careless, but because I care about her it was much easier to forgive!
We can make a big deal of someone else’s mistakes, but once friendship, not superiority, is the overarching priority, it is much easier to see that their error may in fact be only a ‘speck’, not a ‘plank’. Then it is much easier to have grace for them and release forgiveness, not condemnation.
If you struggle with ‘road rage’ or are easily irritated by others it may help to imagine, before you react, that each of those individuals are people you genuinely care for. That makes it a lot easier to get rid of the long plank of judgment, and respond with grace and kindness.
Father God, when I’m annoyed with someone please help me to see them through the love in your eyes, and release forgiveness, not judgment, over them. Amen.
Tuesday February 11 - The long plank of judgment
“...first take the plank out of your own eye...” Matthew 7:5
My husband, our one-year-old daughter and I were living in a small flat in Colombia when the Covid pandemic hit and lockdown rules closed down all the parks. With a young toddler it was very hard having no outdoor space. One day a friend invited my daughter and me to the spacious private garden of her apartment compound, but after 15 minutes a security guard awkwardly had to ask us to leave as other residents had complained – they “didn’t want one of those foreigners who brought Covid into our country” in their compound.
I was so offended! I had been living as a Colombian resident for eight years so hadn’t ‘imported the virus’ but they pushed me away by judging me on my appearance instead of finding out the truth.
Imagine a big, long plank in your eye – it would push you away from everyone and everything! It would distance you from understanding someone else’s struggle or finding out the reality of their needs. When Jesus tells us to take the plank of judgment out of our eye, it means not only to set aside hypocrisy and hierarchy but also to remove barriers and misunderstanding within relationships.
Once you remove such a ‘plank’ of judgment you create space and opportunity to help someone through love and friendship.
Jesus, help me to see where my judgment of others has prevented me from creating Christ-like friendships. Give me opportunity to act with kindness instead of distance. Amen.
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PRAYER FOR TODAY
PRAYER FOR TODAY