“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”- Phil. 2:3-4
My wife is the best listener that I know and the most empathic person I’ve ever seen. That’s rare! Have you ever noticed how most people turn everything to them? They think their problems are larger, their pain is greater, and their burden is heavier than yours. However serious your situation is they view their as worse, and they aren’t bashful about telling you. Rather than being empathic they want to expound upon their experience. They want centerstage. Perhaps we are all guilty of that to some extent. God’s still working on us, so we aren’t perfect yet. But we at least ought to have a desire for it. A desire to be better than we are.
One reason we fail is that, contrary to what we say, none of us can actually know how the other person feels – even when we try. It is impossible. Since we are all different we feel different about things that are the same. I mention this because we need to see the need of those who feel the need to make everything about them. Rather than getting angry with them we need to feel sorry for them. If we don’t we just might not be much different than they are. Think about it. Many times we excuse in ourselves what we condemn in others. It seems like we’ve all got a lot of work to do. Let’s pray that God will help us to think more of others than we do of ourselves. – HDS
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346
