They did so for no reason other than to put you down and maybe to make themselves feel better about whom THEY ARE NOT! Did it have long-term ramifications upon your reputation?
Each of us, you and I, are good at passing judgment are e not? We look at someone with tattoos and assume they are a thug if they have more tattoos that we would like. We see the actions of a child and assume that their parents are the problem and the whole of the family is useless. We see someone driving a car that looks like it can barely start and thing to ourselves that they are low class and poor.
Let’s see now, the one with the tattoos was burned in a horrible fire as a child and uses the tattoos to cover the pain of that time and to gain some sense of beauty in their eyes.
The child that made ONE mistake with a bad decision in reality is a straight “A” student, has a loving mother that provides everything for him/her. However, the child has a learning disability as well as some emotional issues that others take advantage of and they follow along not understanding the consequences.
That man driving the beat up car in reality is the owner of a local multimillion-dollar business. He lives off the same salary as his employees and in fact cut it to half of what his employees make so that they could keep their jobs after new government laws put a hardship on his business. He even sold his Bentley so that he could buy three employees transportation to get to and from work and support their spouse and children. He chose never to drive anything better that the employees he has.
Friends, we must each stop when we make these instant conclusions of others. You know not the history of another person. You know not the stories of their lives. We have no right to judge another for only God can do that. Tonight I suggest each of you think of the last time you made one of these judgments and made it public. What of that person’s reputation? Did you destroy it? Did you tear that individual down even further?
In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?” “Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test.” “Triple filter?” “That’s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?” “No,” the man said, “Actually I just heard about it and ...” “All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?” “No, on the contrary…” “So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?” “No, not really …” “Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”
Friends, we will each be remembered for the tracks that we each leave in life. What kind of tracks are you leaving?
Think upon this tonight as you lay your heads to rest
written by Santa Claus :)
Thanks Mar-ka for http://mar-ka.deviantart.com/ for work art.
