I stole this story from Phil.
Often times, our point of view says more about us than it does the circumstance upon which we are commenting…
A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. “That laundry is not very clean”, she said. “She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.”
Her husband looked on, but remained silent.
Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.
About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: “Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this.”
The husband said, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.”
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3 comments:
If I would to add my own twist, I would say that we are all the woman in our own ways, Perhaps not the cynics view she displayed towards the laundry, but perhaps that we all have points of views that are seemingly distorted... I believe our "flesh" has much to do with this. So is the dirty window the issue or are we dealing with yet another issue of the human heart. Lets change the story a bit... perhaps the Woman sees that her neighbor needs help with laundry, even though in reality it is her own dirty window that has drawn her to this conclusion.... yet instead of day after day being a cynic, she decides to go across the street and help in whatever way she can... regardless of the circumstance that her neighbors laundry was actually laundered very well and that it was her own dirty window that gave off that faux impression... she still began a journey of relationship with another being, and if it wasn't for that dusty old window it might have been a missed opportunity.
In closing, I would suggest that we are all looking through windows that are dirty and distorted... life brings a bounty of seasons, each season leaving its mark on the window before our eyes. The beauty of it all is that we still walk out that door to bring the Kingdom into a landscape that from the inside is seemingly dirty and dull yet once we step into its fullness we begin to grasp so much that we had missed before.
So in other words "don't be a Patsy" if your point of view leads you to believe that someones laundry is not "quite right" go out to build relationship... You will soon discover that your laundry is not perfect either.
Thanks Nate, I always appreciate a thoughtful comment. I think that even getting a different perspective on thing is really helpful and makes for a more accurate and healthy opinion. So even poking her head out the door would have made a difference.
No Prob Ricardo... Sometimes we need to turtle head that threshold if you know what I mean...
*Wink wink nudge nudge
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