I am a dorky Christian, husband to my beautiful wife & best friend and father of three amazing children. In my spare time, I like to play guitar and coach little kids' baseball.
I use this website to log my random thoughts (which doesn't seem to be that frequent).
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I read Michael Hyatt's blog post entitled "What is Holding You Back?" His post got me to thinking about being on the other side of it; judging the effectiveness and abilities of others.
Earlier this school year, I had the talk with my seven year old son about the book he checked out from our private, Christian school. He had chosen a book that I immediately knew was above his current level of reading (and he reads extremely well and often). I talked with him about how he "judged a book by it's cover" by choosing it because of the men with swords and shields on the cover. The book? The Fall of Constantinople.
Now here is where I unjustly made a judgement about him. I assumed he hadn't read much of it or wouldn't have made it very far because of the subject matter and the time it was written.
Me: "Did you read any of it?"
Son: "A little bit."
Me: "Did you understand what you read?"
Son: "Not exactly." (he said this with enough confidence that it made me probe more)
Me: "How much have you read?"
Son: "About four chapters."
Cue 1 Timothy 4:12 - "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity."
Even though he didn't understand it all, he was quite capable of understanding enough that he kept going through four chapters. He judged a book by it's cover, but explored it even though he wasn't able to understand it all. I, on the other hand, assumed it was out of his reach because of his age (even though he has an extensive vocabulary and regularly reads his Bible on his own).
We must not underestimate people, but especially children. They aren't hindered by "knowing so much" and making so many assumptions as we adults often do. I suppose this is why Jesus said what he did to the disciples: "Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” - Matthew 19:13-14.
How about you? What has God taught you about assumptions you've made about someone or something?
