BEAR WITH ONE ANOTHER I LOVE

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2)

I want to share a story that one of my church members emailed me. It was titled “The Window Through Which We Look.”

“A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.

The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside.

'That laundry is not very clean', she said. 'She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.'

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: 'Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?'

The husband said, 'I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.'

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others depends on the purity of the window through which we look. “

No one is ever going to be perfect here on this earth, so we must accept and love other Christians in spite of their faults. When we see faults in fellow believers, we should be patient and gentle. Is there someone whose actions or personality really annoys you? Instead of dwelling on the person’s weaknesses, pray for him or her. Don’t forget to reexamine your own life. People are watching your life. Can they see Christ in you? We need to live lives worthy of being Christ’s very own. This means we are humble, gentle, patient, understanding and peaceful.

Charlotte Austin McCary’s Chapel United Methodist Church