Many times in life we receive messages that could well have a double meaning. That is when we must read between the lines and discern the intent of a persons heart.
Recently I had the privilege of playing golf with a friend who is a very good golfer. We were playing in a comp so it was fairly serious. Coming up to the last hole my partner started some banter with the good golfer, and I thought it would put him off so I interupted and asked him if he had a very good score happening. His drive went left into the trees and so he immediately blamed me for interrupting his pre shot routine. And rightly so. However if he had read between the lines he would have known that was not in my spirit nor my intent. I actually wanted him to do well.
Sometimes we judge people after our own modis operandi in life -when if we took a moment to read between the lines we may see that they are not that kind of person at all. The Bible says that God looks at the heart and not at the visible actions of a person.
I was personally challenged again to live and act in such a way that people who know me would say- that is not what is in his heart. He is not that kind of person. I want people to believe that what I say and do is always based on good motivations. When I fail to live up to the motives of my inner convictions then I need to be man enough to apologise and assure the person that such behaviour will not happen again.
I am not that kind of person.
We all need to read between the lines and cut people a little slack – often they didn’t mean it the way we interpreted it.
We often judge others on their actions -while wanting them to judge us on our motives.
Let’s continue always to be people who live in such a way that people know what we mean – and when the lines are not clear they know us well enought to say – they are not that kind of person. SJP
