IF I HAD my way, my husband would always put the cereal away, take his shoes off when he came into the house, ask directions, and say, "I'm sorry" with ease. But this is not the case. Even after 36 years of marriage, Craig and I are still working on the little things. And I know we're not the only ones.
Interpersonal relationships offer plenty of opportunities to let go of your own opinions about how other people should be doing things. Whether it's a spouse's domestic habits, a child's life choices, or the way a fellow church member ran the last business meeting, it can often be tempting to feel that everything would be great if people just accepted your wonderfully helpful advice.
Paradoxically, though, I've found that this approach can actually impede the very progress you're hoping to promote. How? By keeping your thoughts stuck in the realm of the human, which is the opposite of how healing happens. As long as we perceive others as flawed mortals whose behavior doesn't measure up to our own standards, we're not seeing them the way God sees them. Yet it's this divine viewpoint that heals.
