Judging

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. - Luke 6:41-42

Cody and Shauna spoke about the Awareness Grid yesterday (see below). So many times we’re tempted to start our conflict with others in the bottom right quadrant - where we’re trying to manage their behavior. Basically, we judge them as not saying/doing/thinking/being the ‘right’ way and we want to correct them. Just like Jesus warns us against in Luke 6.

But what if we walked it back and became aware of our own issues (top left quadrant)? Then perhaps we could start to mangage our reactions (top right quadrant) to them long enough to try to understand what’s going on in their world (bottom left quadrant). Which could then lead us to working together with them to change things (bottom right). But it starts with the sawdust in our own eyes first.

Ask God to give you the grace you need this week to face conflicts with others by starting with awakening to your own self. Pray for an opportunity each day (no doubt, God will grant that request!) to have a conflict - and for the strength to step into it in a healthier way than you have in the past.