The Mind Connection: How the Thoughts You Choose Affect Your Mood, Behavior, and Decisions by Joyce Meyer

Author:Joyce Meyer [Meyer, Joyce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion / Christian Life / Personal Growth, Religion / Christian Life / Inspirational, RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2015-09-01T07:00:00+00:00

Jesus broke all the rules of the day and gave us a new one: Love one another, just as He loves you.

First Impressions

In a Christianity Today article, Stephen Brown quoted F. B. Meyer when he wrote that there are two things we do not know about other people: First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin. And second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or her.2 One thing I would add is that we also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.

What we think about others greatly impacts how we relate to them. Our thoughts about a person affect how we treat them, and how we allow that person to treat us. A person may want to do something kind for us, but if we have already decided that we don’t trust them, we may shut a door of opportunity that God is trying to open.

I read that, in 1884, parents who were grieving the loss of their son decided to establish a memorial to him. They went to Harvard University and met with the president, Charles Eliot. Eliot is purported to have been surprised when the simple, unpretentious people asked about funding a building in their son’s name. He discouraged them from the idea, saying that it would be way too expensive. He assumed they didn’t have the money and suggested they do something simple and less costly. The couple declined and left without making a donation.

Only a year later, Eliot was informed that the same couple he had dismissed unceremoniously had established a $26 million memorial named Leland Stanford Junior University, known to you and me today as Stanford.3

Eliot missed a great blessing due to making improper assumptions based on first impressions. His unkind thoughts and attitude about the couple cost him more than he could have imagined at the time.

It is very important to see people the way God sees them. First Samuel 16:7 says: “For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” If we are willing, we can learn to think about people the way God thinks about them. We’ll recognize each person as a valuable possibility instead of a potential problem.

To see people the way God sees them, and to think about them the way that God thinks about them, comes with spiritual maturity—it is a by-product of walking in the Spirit rather than walking in the flesh. It is often a sacrifice, because we may not want to take the time to know them more deeply. I realize that we cannot be best friends with everyone we meet, but we can at least stop being rude to people by evaluating them at a glance. There will always be people we can relate to better than others, but that should not be an excuse for having an exclusive attitude. We may all benefit by widening our circle of inclusion.

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