Dirty Laundry

My Dad has a wonderful ministry that involves searching the web each day for inspiring stories and encouraging words that he shares with many, many contacts via email. Lives have been touched, hearts changed, and circumstances improved because of his passion and concern for others. Here is a story he sent me this week:

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.

Merciful Father, in Jesus’ name, I ask that you wash my windows sparkly clean so I may see my brother or sister as You see them…..a precious child of God….help me to always remember that You look on the inner heart and not the outward appearance of others, and what I “see” with my eyes, is rarely the whole story….help me to have an open and loving spirit towards all of your creations….

But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 Amplified Bible