Judging the Proverbial Book by Its Proverbial Cover!

Yesterday being a Monday was a day off for me ... well sort of. As I usually do on Mondays,  I slept in (which I did ... got up around 7:00 - AM that is, not PM!), got some projects done around the house (yep, cut the lawn, treated my trees (they needed some iron supplements) and balanced the check book), and ran some errands (did this too!). One of our errands was to head to the mall to pick up a suit I had altered (only to get there and find out that the suit had not come in yet! Such is life! And it helps not to sweat the small stuff, yes?).

On our way into the mall, I noticed a younger man sporting a beard and wearing clothes that I would not be caught dead in! In addition, he was carrying an aluminum brief case (of the likes I had not seen in some time). Oh ... and before I forget, he was wearing TWO wrist watches on each wrist. When I noticed that, I suggested to my wife that he wore a watch for each time zone in the U.S.

Now ...I know everyone has a story. And I do not know what this guy's story is ... but I do know we can make a lot of wrong judgments about people's stories by just looking at them. For all I know this guy is an undercover anti-terrorist agent working for the FBI. OK, probably not ... but the reality is I DO NOT KNOW.

So you are probably wondering what's my point with all of this? Here is the moral of my story. We need to get to know someone before sticking a label on their forehead. Perhaps someone you know appears standoffish and unfriendly. So you judge them to be cold and indifferent when maybe they are quite sensitive and caring but have been hurt by others in the past and are therefore very cautious in their relationships.

Don't judge a book by its cover. Open it. Read it. Then you will be in a better place to understand it ... and (since I am really talking about people) minister to the individual's needs. That, by the way, is what we are called to do (Galatians 5:13).

Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj