What If?

What if we viewed each other the same way as God viewed us? What if we saw others through the eyes of Christ? Would we judge them so harshly? Would we harbor bitterness in our hearts towards them? No, because God doesn’t see them as we do; God sees them as precious! What if we saw others as precious? How would that change the way we treated others? How would that change the way we spoke to them? How would that change what our thoughts are towards them? Wow, what challenging questions! I know I have failed at seeing people through the eyes of Christ. I so often am quick to judge and slow to listen, and even quicker to become emotional about the situations I face with others. Thank goodness God does not act this way. He is so very patient with us. He sets such a beautiful example of how we should treat others. God has set the bar high for how we should treat and view others. In fact, when I think about how God views these things it humbles my heart and I realize just how much growing I have to do in this area of my life.

God has placed people in our lives for several reasons the first and biggest reason is so that we love them! God also brings people into our lives to either learn from or to teach and train. God does not bring people into our lives to simply irritate and aggravate us, or to test how quickly we can lose our tempers with someone who tries our patience. God always has purpose for those he brings across our paths. If we learn to look at each person as a precious teacher, or a precious learner. Our outlook on them changes even if they continue to be trying. How often do we stop to think that maybe the frustrations we are experiencing from being rubbed the wrong way by someone is really a beautiful learning opportunity for us? In these times, we have the chance to learn how to be kind in the face of unkindness, to be patient in the face of impatience, and to be loving in the face of the unlovable. Besides, we want people to be kind, patient and loving with us, so we may as well learn to give out those things that we ourselves want in return. The golden rule still continues to prove itself to be relevant. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” May I suggest a slight amendment to the golden rule… “Do unto others what Christ would do unto them.”

So, what if we viewed those who rubbed us the wrong way as precious? Would we still find ourselves so frustrated? Would we still be tempted to say things we would ultimately regret? I’m guessing much of our frustrations would be eliminated and we would work on finding effective ways to work through the situation instead of allowing things to escalate. My challenge for us, myself included, is this, let’s work on viewing others around us as the precious gifts from God that they are, rather than a frustrating bother. Let’s focus on the things that we can learn about the Lord from those people that God has placed in our lives.

Lord, I thank you that you do not view others as we view them. I pray that you help us to learn to see others through your eyes. Help us to see others as precious. Help us in the frustrating times to see them as precious. I thank you that you bring people across our path so that we can learn more about you and so that we can teach others more about you. I thank you that you have created our relationships with others to be a good thing and not a source of recurring frustration to us. Help us to be kind as you are kind, to love as you love, and to be patient as you are patient.