I think we are all guilty of this at times.
Recently, someone told me a story about some people. The person was telling me some facts, but there were definite judgments attached. For the next couple of days, I couldn't stop thinking about the story. The more I thought about it, the more my heart broke for the people involved.
The more I pondered it, the more I wondered why it was so attached to my heart. The Lord began to show me how often we {me included} see the dirt rather than finding the gold. He began convicting my heart over situations and discussions I have been involved in.
We all have dirt because we are all human. We are sinful creatures who can create quite the dirt piles. We, more than anyone else, know how dirty we are and can become. We are fully aware of the imperfections and sins that plaque us.
Do we focus on other's dirt to avoid seeing our own sometimes? Does focusing on other's dirt take the spotlight off of our own messiness?
Yep-I think that's it. We focus on the dirt other's wear so our dirt doesn't appear to be so brown.
Aren't we suppose to be building each other up and encouraging one another to live life better? We can't really do that if we are focusing on the messy, even if just in our minds.
Our family visited Colorado a few summers ago. We decided we would go on an adventure and search for gold. We grabbed our tin bowls and began sifting through the water in search of the sparkly stuff. It didn't take long for our kids {and me} to get bored. All we seemed to find were dirty rocks covered in mud. After about 15 minutes we set our bowls aside and began running around in search of instant fun.
We never found any gold - we didn't look long enough.
We can be that way in our interactions with people. Sometimes we don't look long and hard enough for the sparkle. We notice the dirt and quickly walk away.
Everyone has sparkle inside of them. We can find some people's fairly quickly. But some people have hidden it so well that it takes quite a while to find it. When there is a glimmer of sparkle in those people, however, it is the most beautiful shine. Not only are you recognizing it, but the person may be too. They may not even be aware that any kind of glimmer exists in their broken, messy hearts.
What if we stopped looking at the dirt and searched for the gold?
What if when we see even a hint of a glimmer, we focus on that rather than the mess?
Can you imagine the shine that will sparkle when we do?
Imagine showing someone their gold when they had no idea any existed.
Be the one who finds the gold, my friend. Oh what we can do for God's Kingdom if we only look hard enough.
Loving you with a golden heart-
Marci
