The Bible challenges us to be quick to listen and slow to speak.
It is so easy to develop negative thoughts about an individual that it can become almost impossible to see anything good in that person.
Years ago, a young man arrived at my office. He had issues with his father. Tempers flared and things were said that could never be withdrawn. I listened to the boy unloading his frustrations. When he ran out of steam, I asked him how well he knew his dad.
His answer was, “Very well.”
Without divulging too much, I shared a few things about the father’s childhood and personal battles with the son. At the end, I said a prayer. You cannot imagine how surprised I was a few weeks later when I saw the boy again. He thanked me for my prayer. He told me how his dad was a changed man. I phoned his mom to confirm the miracle.
To my surprise, she said the father had not changed at all. The miracle was, according to her, the change in her son. Then the penny dropped. The boy reacted differently to his dad because of the picture I painted.
How you see God will determine how you relate to him.
