Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ~ Luke 6:37
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These two verses have been on my mind quite often because of some of the things I see happening in the world today. This morning these verses once again came to my mind when I was on Facebook. In my news feed, I saw the story of a child standing outside a church yelling and screaming at the attendees as they exited the church because that particular church spoke out in support of gay marriage. The first thing that came to my mind it that this child is being taught to hate those who have differing views rather than being taught the concepts behind the verses above.
I am a big believer that it is not my place to judge, that is God's place. I believe that loving one another means you are accepting and respectful of people for who they are regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, size, sexual orientation, political views, philosophies of life, etc. That respect is shown by not using derogatory terms when speaking of people. Nothing burns me up more than people calling groups of people names for whatever reason. You see, because I am a teacher, you are speaking of my children. I teach children of all genders, religions, ethnicities, sizes, sexual orientations, views, etc. When someone spouts off a derogatory term of any kind, they are speaking about some child I have loved as my own for a year and who I still love no matter if we are still in touch or not. Those words hurt my heart and make me lose respect for the person who has used those terms.
My views on many issues that are debated in the world today are shaped by the two verses above. To show that I love others, I believe it is not my place to judge the life choices of others. That is between that person and the Lord. My job here on Earth is to show love, be accepting of others and to show respect to all. If everyone modeled the verses above, imagine how much better the world would be.
