Looking To Oneself First

Looking to Oneself First

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”

John 8:7

My friend Elizabeth’s parents left the Amish lifestyle when she was just a child, but her family was able to maintain a close relationship with her Amish relatives. Recently Elizabeth was visiting her Amish grandmother when she learned a good lesson in humility. Elizabeth writes:

It was probably May, and I was visiting with her in her small apartment on my Uncle David’s property. My girls were playing, and Mammie and I were putting away her laundry and hanging up her dresses in her closet. My mom had folded everything perfectly the night before because she knows exactly how her mom liked it done.

As we were putting it all away she begins to tell me how she just can’t believe the way in which some people hang their clothes on the line to dry. She said how if you do it properly, you’ll avoid wrinkles or misshapen clothing. She’d tried her best not to be prideful with how well she hung and folded clothing, she told me. She even said she prays she won’t be so judgmental toward others on how they do their laundry.

It’s amazing how pride can sneak up on us, isn’t it? We can look at how we do laundry or cook or care for our children, and it’s easy to compare our way with someone else’s way. The first step in solving that problem is noting, as Elizabeth’s grandmother does, when pride is moving in.

It’s the same way with other sins. Our tendency is to compare our sins with those of others. It’s easy to see someone else’s sin as worse than ours, but Jesus makes it clear that no one can point a finger at another’s sin without being sinless. Do you feel pride or a judgmental attitude sneaking in? Turn that pointing finger back around, and ask God to help you take an honest look at your own heart before you judge someone else.

Dear heavenly Father, it’s easy to compare ourselves with others and find them lacking. Help me to look at myself first. Work in me, and help me to be an example to others of grace and goodwill.