The Mirror

Have you read this verse and thought about it?  "As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects one person to another."  Proverbs 27:19

I can't tell you the number of times I've gotten aggravated with someone over their idiosyncrasies, habits, flesh, or sin. I might have even gone on a rampage or two because of them.  But God, in His faithfulness, has been quick to point out the same things in my own life.  It's humbling, to say the least.

And then there’s the passage in Matthew 7:1-5 which tells us not to judge or the same judgement will be given to us. The insinuation in this passage is that it’s made of the same substance.  We’re not to try to get the splinter out of someone’s eye until we’ve gotten the plank out of ours.  Again...the same substance.  

Yesterday, I was angry over a situation where I felt someone had undervalued me.  I stewed about it for 24 hours.  And then I went to God. I began journaling all of my thoughts about the situation.  God didn’t say a word, but caused me to remember this principle He had taught me many years ago...and I chose to put the comparison mirror up in front of me.  Ouch!!  The very things of which I was accusing another were true in my own life.  

It should be a red flag when we’re examining someone else’s life with a fine-toothed comb.  At that moment, we should hold up the mirror to our own hearts and allow the Spirit of God to examine us.  And anything that opposes God?   Uproot it!!  Ask for forgiveness.  And receive grace and extend that same grace to others.