LOOK FOR THE GOOD– THOUGH IT MAY BE HIDDEN, IT’S STILL THERE!

The Lord reminded me of this when my husband and I were having breakfast. He cut into his banana to put some on his waffle– and cast half of it aside in disgust, declaring “This is all rotten!”

I took a close look at it and replied, “No it’s not. There’s a lot of good parts in here.”

“I don’t see any,” he answered, “but you’re welcome to it.”

I took the cast-off banana… examined it… and performed some “surgery”, extracting the bad from the good… finding quite a bit of good, and enjoying it on my own waffle 🙂

Which made me think– not only about food and things, but about people–

How often do we look at someONE — see only the obvious bad parts on the outside, judge them as “rotten”, and cast them aside as “useless”, “worthless”, even “harmful”?

If anyone has the right to compare our outward faults to his perfection, it’s the Lord! And yet He reminds us–

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Sam. 16:7

Jesus also told His followers, then and now, “’Do not judge…’”  Mat. 7:1

Does this mean we shouldn’t exercise good judgment or have discernment?  No.  Living in a fallen world as we do, we have to distinguish dangerous people from harmless ones, frauds from honest businesses, poisonous mushrooms from edible ones, etc.

But that’s different from pronouncing judgment and condemnation on people based on first impressions, appearance, or one encounter.

This is why Jesus said, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” Jn. 7:24 In other words, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Judging by appearance only not only leads to incomplete and inaccurate judgment, it boomerangs back and “returns to haunt us.”  The verse that starts with “Do not judge…”, continues with, “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” Mat. 7:1-2

Our willingness to go deeper to discover the whole truth about people should reflect thankfulness that the Lord and others have done that with us.

Think of the number of times we’ve thanked the Lord (and people) for going deeper with us—such as when a teacher/professor still gave us a good grade even though we bombed the first test. Or when we had a “bad hair day” and didn’t present well in manners when we first met someone.  Or… (fill in the blank with whatever made us look bad or stupid).

Before we write someone off after a quick glance, let’s dig deeper– look for the good– we’ll find it if we search intentionally– and both of us will benefit from that!

Who do you need to look for the good in today? Feel free to “go bananas” in your search! 🙂