Seeing others as God sees them
Monday, October 22nd, 2007The amazing year since I surrendered my life to God and have pursued to strengthen my relationship with Him has been quite the learning experience, to say the least. My mind has been rewired in many ways. Circuits have been replaced. Traffic has been re-routed. You get the picture, I’m sure. In a real, living, non-cliché way I’ve discovered that God really is love. Pure love. He’s this perfect parent who wants nothing but good for His children. Ya know what I mean, Vern? That learning process continues. I love Him more each day. On a daily basis, I discover something new about his nature from my experiences in… ordinary life.
Letting go of all the anger and bitterness is part of the process of getting to know who God IS. I’m happy to say, those two things are mostly gone. Mostly. There are flare ups from time to time, and perhaps there always will be. But the hatred? I can honestly say the hatred is gone for good.
How was I able to let that hatred go? By making an attempt to see others as God sees them… as he sees me. Despite my garbage, baggage, sin… God loved me. He never let go. He looks at me with even more fondness than I look at my son. I know there is nothing my son could ever do to make me love him any less, and how much more so can the same be said about how God cares for each of HIS children? I’ve said before, if someone disliked my son I think I’d have a hard time liking that person. How can I dislike God’s sons and daughters and expect Him to be happy about it? I’ve discovered that letting go of hatred is mostly a choice. I’ve made that choice. I’ve adjusted the perspective from which I look at others, and have happily discovered I really love people. - Donny Pauling
