Listen, Learn, and Show Compassion

 "Stop judging by the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." - JOHN 7:24. 

WOULD you like people to judge y ou based on the color of your skin, the shape of your face, or teh size of your body?  Likely, you would not.  How comforting it is to know, then, that Jehovah does not judge us by what human eyes can see! For example, when Samuel loooked at the sons of Jesse, he did not see what Jehovah saw. Jehovah had told Samuel that one of Jesse's sons would become King of Israel. But which one? Samuel  saw Jesse's oldest spon, Eliab, he said:  "Surely here before Jehovah stands his anointed one."  Eliab looked like a king.  "But Jehovah said to Samuel:  'Do not pay attention to his appearance and  how tall he is, for I have rejected him.'"  The lesson? Jehovah continued:"Man sees what appears to the eyes, but Jehovah sees ino the heart." - 1 SAMUEL 16:1, 6, 7. 

As  imperfect humans, all of us have a tendency to judge others by  their outward appearance.   (Read John 7:24.) But learn only a little about a person from what we can see with our  eyes.  To illustrate, even a brilliiant and experienced doctor can learn only so much by just looking at a patient.  He must listen attentively if he is to learn about the patient's medical history, his emotional makeup, or any symptoms he is having.  The doctor may even order an X-ray to see the inside of a person's body.  Otherwise, the doctor could misdiagnose the problem.  Similarly, we cannot fully understand our brothers and sisters by simply looking at their outward appearance. We must try to look beneath the surface-at the inner person.  Of course, we cannot read their hearts, so we will never understand ofthers as well as Jehovah does.  But we can do our best to imitate Jehovah. How? 

How does Jehovah deal with his worshippers?  He listens and pays attention to what they say. He takes into account their background and situation.  And he shows compassion for them.  As we consider how Jehovah did that for Jonah, Elijah, Hagar, and Lot, let us see how we can imitate Jehovah when dealing with everyone. 

Note: Listening and paying attention are two different things. Listening is just listening and it goes in one ear and out the others as fast as it goes in. Paying attention is not just listening, but it is paying attention to what they said amd  and stores it in his/her brain, so the will  remember what the person may ask him/her what they said. Like at school and their teacher asks him what the answer is to a what she said.  Two very different things.   People do not pay attention, because they have not intersest in doing so. No respect. no compassion.

Next time: Listen, Learn, and Show Compassion - LISTEN ATTENTIVELY

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