122 Proverbs 4:25 Optical Fidelity
JMD Devotional 122 Proverbs 4:25 Optical Fidelity
Let your eyes look right on [with fixed purpose], and let your gaze be straight before you.
In the court of human law, eye witnesses play a significant role. Out of the many possible bystanders who may have witnessed a crime, attorneys weed out people with an overbearing prejudice, a conflicting loyalty or possible complicity in the event itself. They want to get an accurate account of actual events; but human beings unconsciously color their perception with the mental baggage they carry. A classic psychological example is a study in which people were briefly shown a photograph of a white man with a knife facing a black man; an hour later the testimony of nine out of ten individuals told of the knife being in the black man's hand (agreeing with their prejudices). Testimony is also often discredited or thrown out if the observation is through glass due to optical effects. A good attorney can argue that refraction can distort light, uneven thicknesses of glass can magnify or diminish scale, that images can be reflected and superimposed on each other, that optics can create illusions. At certain angles clear glass behaves like a mirror, so you can't be certain of the actual position of the object viewed through it (like trying to shoot a fish, it is not physically where it appears to be.)
When it comes to looking at ourselves, we require a flat mirror. A shaving mirror or a carnival mirror is warped; the bends in the glass either magnifies or reduces our image. It is just as wrong to think too little of yourself as it is to think too much of yourself; good mental health accepts yourself as you are. I am not a worm; but I'm a very insecure person. God made us just a little lower than the angels; we are at the top of the creation of physical things, the thumbprint of God is on us, we are not junk! Diminishing the value of any other people is also a distortion, a sin. There is so much more good than evil, so much more light than darkness. Strive to see yourself and others in an unprejudiced and unbiased way, look straight on, and see reality.
Dear God,
I hear criticism when none was intended, I feel disapproval and rejection when it is not really there. I don't know how much deception is stored in my memories or how much of the world's ugliness is a product of my own distorted senses! I'm a real mess God! Please correct my vision and hearing; please heal my wounded spirit. I long to love and be loved, to be social, to belong in my home, my church, my workplace and my community; but I'm a wounded animal that hides and bites and skulks in the shadows. Bring me into the well-lighted mainstream, near the hearth of human companionship, help me to live again unfettered by so much damaged past.
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
My Poetry
http://saintjamespoetry.blog.com/
(Some) of my Devotionals
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
Let your eyes look right on [with fixed purpose], and let your gaze be straight before you.
In the court of human law, eye witnesses play a significant role. Out of the many possible bystanders who may have witnessed a crime, attorneys weed out people with an overbearing prejudice, a conflicting loyalty or possible complicity in the event itself. They want to get an accurate account of actual events; but human beings unconsciously color their perception with the mental baggage they carry. A classic psychological example is a study in which people were briefly shown a photograph of a white man with a knife facing a black man; an hour later the testimony of nine out of ten individuals told of the knife being in the black man's hand (agreeing with their prejudices). Testimony is also often discredited or thrown out if the observation is through glass due to optical effects. A good attorney can argue that refraction can distort light, uneven thicknesses of glass can magnify or diminish scale, that images can be reflected and superimposed on each other, that optics can create illusions. At certain angles clear glass behaves like a mirror, so you can't be certain of the actual position of the object viewed through it (like trying to shoot a fish, it is not physically where it appears to be.)
When it comes to looking at ourselves, we require a flat mirror. A shaving mirror or a carnival mirror is warped; the bends in the glass either magnifies or reduces our image. It is just as wrong to think too little of yourself as it is to think too much of yourself; good mental health accepts yourself as you are. I am not a worm; but I'm a very insecure person. God made us just a little lower than the angels; we are at the top of the creation of physical things, the thumbprint of God is on us, we are not junk! Diminishing the value of any other people is also a distortion, a sin. There is so much more good than evil, so much more light than darkness. Strive to see yourself and others in an unprejudiced and unbiased way, look straight on, and see reality.
Dear God,
I hear criticism when none was intended, I feel disapproval and rejection when it is not really there. I don't know how much deception is stored in my memories or how much of the world's ugliness is a product of my own distorted senses! I'm a real mess God! Please correct my vision and hearing; please heal my wounded spirit. I long to love and be loved, to be social, to belong in my home, my church, my workplace and my community; but I'm a wounded animal that hides and bites and skulks in the shadows. Bring me into the well-lighted mainstream, near the hearth of human companionship, help me to live again unfettered by so much damaged past.
Amen
All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by
the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
*New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)
If you know of someone who would like to subscribe to
my daily devotional, please forward.
jamesdinsmore_32907@yahoo.com
Short, concise, thought-provoking.
More features:
My Poetry
http://saintjamespoetry.blog.com/
(Some) of my Devotionals
http://recoverydevotional.blogspot.com/
posted by James M. Dinsmore at 4:03 PM
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