Dig for gold!

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 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? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Matthew 7 : 1-5

Good morning, friends.

As a young Scots boy, Andrew Carnegie came to America and started doing odd jobs. He ended up as one of the largest steel manufacturers in the United States. At one time he had 43 millionaires working for him. Several decades ago, a million dollars used to be a lot of money; even today it is a lot of money. Someone asked Mr. Carnegie how he dealt with people? Andrew Carnegie replied, "Dealing with people is like digging gold: When you go digging for an ounce of gold, you have to move tons of dirt to get an ounce of gold. But when you go digging, you don't go looking for the dirt, you go looking for the gold."

What is your focus? Become a digger for gold. If you are looking for what is wrong with people or with things, you will find many. There is something positive in every person and every situation. Sometimes we have to dig deep to look for the positive because it may not be apparent. We are so used to looking for what is wrong with other people and situations, we forget to see what is right. Someone once said that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

In Matthew 7 : 1 - 5 Jesus says how we one should deal with the people. You may find something wrong with others. But before you go and tell them, first think of yourself once and see if you have any such with you. Paul says in Romans 2 : 1, "You, therefore have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass the judgment do the same things."

A couple moves to a new neighborhood. One morning, the woman notices many washed clothes of her neighbor from inside her home through the window and she made a comment, "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs to change her washing soap". Whenever she makes this comment, her husband remains silent. One day she sees clean clothes of her neighbor drying out. She tells, "See, the clothes are so clean today. I don't know who taught her to do a clean wash". Her husband replies after a moment pause, "Today I woke up early in the morning and I cleaned our window".

Is it not funny when we have fault on our side and we don't recognize it, but keep on looking at others' mistakes? Remember we are God's children. God doesn't like His children whispering about one another or hurting others by our harsh words. When keep on looking to others and their faults, remember that our God continuously watches us. He even knows what's going on in our hearts. We have to be very careful before we utter anything against a person who is not in front of us at that instant. Don't even think bad of someone in your heart. You may hide something from others, but everything is naked before the Lord's eyes.