STOP LABELING!!

By Anita Mondragon

Has there ever been a time in your life that you’ve felt you’re “too far gone” for God’s love to reach you?  Perhaps you’ve committed a heinous crime against society…rape, murder, theft, or the like, and now you’re in prison.  Maybe it was a sin against your spouse…an affair.  Perhaps you’re an addict of drugs or alcohol.  Maybe you belong to God, you’re saved, born-again…a Believer, but you’ve strayed far from home, wallowed in the sinful life you lived before you come to know the Savior, and now you wonder if God’s mercy and grace will stoop to hear your prayers asking for forgiveness.

When God looks at us, it’s through eyes of love.  He doesn’t label us.

We’ve all grown up with at least one label that stuck to us because we believed it, and allowed it to define us.  We’ve all been labeled before, and we’ve most likely done some labeling ourselves.   We sometimes make snap judgments on people’s appearance.  You see a homeless person, and right away, you decide he/she is a drug user, an alcoholic, or a no-good lazy bum.  But you know nothing about that person, nor the circumstances that brought them to the place they are today.

We call people stupid, loser, failure, hypocrite, cheater, moron…and the list goes on; but we have no idea who they really are or why they act the way they do!  BUT GOD DOES!  He knows us all.  In Romans chapter 5, it says this:  “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, (haters of God) Christ Jesus died for us!”

That’s one of the best verses in the Bible!  It shows the mercy, grace, and love that God has for every one of us!  And, He extends that mercy to us as long as we’re breathing.  He stands, arms open wide to receive anyone that will come to Him!

Remember the little saying we used when we were kids?  When other kids called us names, we’d say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones…but words will never hurt me.”  Remember that?  But the truth is, mean words DO hurt us, and if we allow them to stay in our hearts, they will in later years define who we become.

Let’s start each new day in the right way.  Let’s try to see others through God’s eyes.  Choose your words wisely.  Stop making snap judgments…or judgment of any kind on those we meet.  It’s not for us to judge…but God only.  Quit labeling folks.  Just love them to Jesus!

Anita


Leave a Reply