Our pastor Tommy preached a sermon this past Sunday on Church Discipline..or Body Maintenance whose precepts are living Christ-like and doing what it takes personally and corporately to keep His Church pure. Part of that lesson was a point on how deceiving our interpretations of what we see and hear can be. Ever been in a situation where your first impression or the snippet of conversation you overheard was TOTALLY wrong? Things may not be as they seem.
This point was driven home to me this morning. The girls and I (yes, I got people) went out to breakfast after we dropped the kids off at school and Tia got off work from her street corner (again, not what you think!!). We met up @ Cracker Barrel for some breakfast. I decided to splurge some serious Weight Watchers point on breakfast and ordered a kid's pancake breakfast w/ turkey sausage and coffee. With the meal came a cute little bottle of CB Syrup..warmed too. Oh, the bottle of brown nectar....what a delight! My mouth waters now recalling the flavor of a pancake with butter and syrup...sorry, I digressed for a moment.
Anyway, our purpose of breakfast was to hear stories from our newly minted Romania missionary Holly. You know, the REAL stories and the stuff we women want to hear specifics on. We laughed so hard hearing of her and our other friends' adventures. We delighted in hearing the ways the Lord displayed His presence. To give you an idea, we were @ Cracker Barrel from 8:30 - 10:00! As I left, I decided to grab the two small syrup bottles. When I returned home I brought Mimi the paper and she said, "What's in your hand? Whiskey bottles?" We had a laugh about that! I left them on the kitchen counter and later after the kids got home from school they also asked "Are those alcohol bottles?"
Small bottle, dark liquid, a seal..they sort of do look like a sample bottle of alcohol that's served on a plane. However upon closer inspection the label says syrup, not whiskey. There are many similarities such as color, bottle appearance, size and at quick glance, the label. But when you actually take time to examine them then you'll see the difference. Looks the same but what about smell (aromatic or pungent) ? What about taste (opps! bad example but you get my point..sweet or nasty?) There are many ways to discern differrences.
I think that was one of the point of Tommy's message. Don't jump to conclusions about what you see or hear about folks. Don't be quick to judge. Don't let someone else's assessment of a situation influence your opinons until you have all the facts.
Philippians 1:9-10 (NKJV) 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.
Don't confuse the syrup for the whiskey!!
No comments:
Post a Comment