Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Through The Window

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. Everytime 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. Before we give any criticism, it might be a good idea to check our state of mind and a sk ourselves if we are ready to see the good rather than to be looking for something in the person we are about to judge

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a nice parable, Larry. There is a quote in the Bible saying "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" (Matthew 7.3), you surely know it. We are always ready to criticise the others, mostly without cleaning window of our mind and soul beforehand. Criticising is so easy and cleaning so bothering...

Larry said...

Yes, I am familiar with that verse, and this parable is a good reminder of that.

I like the way you put it;
"We are always ready to criticise the others, mostly without cleaning window of our mind and soul beforehand"

Great insight. Thanks Petra :-)