Today's Devotional Thought
September 20, 2011 by Rachel Piferi
Snap Judgments
On Thursday afternoons, I have a new routine. I spend the morning in Bible study with my sweet friends at my church and then I spend a few hours in the afternoon at Dairy Queen. Before you think I go there every week for ice cream, I really go to use their internet and get some work done that I cannot do at home. As I have mentioned before, I live in a small town and I actually am on satellite internet. So, to get high speed internet and to get some work done more quickly than I can do at home, I spend a few hours a week in Dairy Queen on Thursday afternoons. It works out pretty nicely and frees me up to do other things when the kids are home after school.
Last Thursday, as I was working, I was struck with a harsh reality about human nature. And I want to share it with you today.
I was sitting in a booth feeling really productive and so enjoying high speed internet (I know its common for most of you, but it is an absolute luxury for me!) and a woman walked by me and with a huff said under her breath (but loud enough for me to hear it), "Wow, career women today. They can't ever stop working."
I was a little taken back and by the anger in her voice, I knew that she didn't mean it to be a compliment on what she thought was my work ethic. And while I wanted to engage in conversation and explain what exactly I was doing, I didn't. I wanted to tell her that it is the few hours each week that I actually can work. That I do it while my kids are at school so that I don't have to do it at home (while they want to play and with really slow internet). I wanted to tell her that I wasn't at all what she thought I was: a workaholic that can't look up from her laptop long enough to enjoy life around her.
I wanted to tell her all of those things, but instead I just sat there saddened by the fact that she made a very snap judgment about me and didn't know me at all. And then it was like God whispered to me, Rachel, you do it too. You look at snapshots of people's lives and think you know what's going on. You make snap judgments. You do it too.
How about you? Do you look at snapshots of people's lives and make judgments about who they must be? What their priorities are? Do you look at people in your community or at your church or on Facebook and think you know what they must be thinking or doing or feeling based on the few snapshots of their life you see?
I know I'm guilty of it and I was really convicted by it when this woman insulted me with her snap judgment of me last week.
We are told to not judge others. And you know, I'm beginning to think that we're told that because we simply don't have all the facts to even be able to do it with any accuracy. Not to mention, it simply is not our place to do it anyways. It is God's place.
Today I am going to try to stop my snap judgments because I really don't know what's going on in people's lives and it's not my place to judge anyways.
December