Second impressions
Lily Cathcart
December 10, 2020
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1 Samuel 16: 7 (NRSVA)
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’
Someone once told me that it’s not your first thought about a person that matters but your second.
Your first, they argued, is born of society’s prejudices and your own unconscious bias. Your first thought about someone can easily be too harsh where there is no need or too complimentary where it has not been earned.
Luckily we have the second thought. For many this is the thought which corrects the bias, asks for truth from the prejudice and for proof of the compliment.
It is here that we can put the open heart of God.
It is here too we can hope to build in ourselves the practice of seeing everybody’s hearts as God sees them and maybe one day we will find God in our first thought too.
PRAYER:
God of our thoughts
You know we think all manner of things before we have time to stop them.
Help us to multiply our good thoughts to outnumber those less worthy of us and of you.
Give us your heart to see the world through.
Open us to the possibility of admitting we were wrong.
Amen.
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