Last Thursday was a day when I thought "Go ahead, make my life miserable today" was written on my forehead. Every time I got in the car, some was pulling out in front of me. While standing in line at several stores, people would push in front of me. Even the cashier acted like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I became tempted to start acting like those around me. After all, it seemed to be working for them, right?
The way we interact with other people--how we speak to and behave toward those we encounter each day--are rooted in our relationship with God. When you consider the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, you may notice that they first describe the relationship between God and man. The commandments begin with loving God, having no idols before Him, not taking His name in vain, and keeping the Sabbath holy. Then the commandments go on to speak of the relationship between people. We are told to honor father and mother, not to murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, or covet someone's possessions.
We see the same pattern in the Beatitudes and in Jesus' response when asked about the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:37-40, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
How we treat others is obviously important to God or He would not have put it as a high priority. He is watching how we react to those we come in contact with every day because they are His children, too. And, yes, they are watching how we react to them as well.
1 comment:
Well done Barb.
I had a friedn once that finally discovered that God really did love him and thatGod had a wonderful plan for him each day. He developed an attitude that because God loved him that he was special so if everyone knew him better they would love him. He told me that everytime someone came with the "attitude" or pulled out in front of him He would wave at them and praise the LORD. When he did something "by accident" like pulling out in front of someone in traffic and get a "reaction" from the other person, he would just wave and say to himself "he needs to get to know me, because God made me special." It reallly is our attitude and knowing whos we are that makes a difference.
Check out the Walden World Blog at http://bigbobworld.blogspot.com/. Simple thoughts for simple folk from a simple man.
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