This photo is of an apple…….no question about that. Now it’s cut we can see inside but before then we had no idea what was inside. So it is with people…..we can assume things without knowing ‘what’s inside’. There’s an old saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, and yet it happens all the time. We see someone and make assumptions. Hopefully it remains in our mind and we control ourselves from making statements without really knowing the person. However….what is in our mind affects how we act and react in so many situations.
Just thinking of one small way to see things from a more biblical perspective is to check ourselves in what we think and then it will help us to act and speak in more healing/life-changing ways. What does this look like ?
We could blame ‘human nature’ (as it has been damaged since the garden of Eden) or our cultural conditioning, but whatever the reason, we can assume things about people by their appearance and particularly their gender. Sometimes these thoughts flash through our minds, so can we do anything about it ? Immediately think of the person as an unique creation and purposely decide to not make presumptions about how they might think or act. Attribute to the person the right to be themselves and decide to observe their behaviour or speech as coming from them personally, not as just ‘a man’ or just ‘a woman’. Think of the child or adult as God sees them…….from the inside out.
When we consciously make this seemingly small change in our thinking, it will enlarge our way of looking at people and the whole subject of biblical equality which of course applies to race, class, social standing and all the distinctions we humans put on each other. It needs to be a practised skill but starts with the first step.
Maybe there are other small steps to change ourselves and promote a better approach to seeing people more like God sees them.
