Other Good Qualities!

Yesterday, I took my grandsons to the park. They rode their bikes as I walked. My younger 4 year old grandson still has training wheels on his bike. My nine year old grandson was totally independent on his ride. He rode up ahead and back to me just like I have taught him. He was riding steadily as he kept his bike on the side of the road to stay out of the little traffic that passed by. During this trip, he was absolutely perfect! I was very impressed.

The same thing could not be said for my younger grandson. He has not made as many bike trips to the park with me. He was unaware of the rules of biking to the park. He was testing the limits and I was being patient as I instructed him over and over. At one point, he began to go really fast. I told him to put on his brakes and he did so with his usual vigor. He pressed so hard, he caused a skid mark on the sidewalk behind him. The problem is I love skid marks and I found out he does too!

When I saw the skid mark, something happened inside and I was so proud. So I proceeded to have him turn around and look. When he saw it he was just as impressed as I was. And for the rest of the mile to the park and the two miles back, he made skid marks. He would ride so fast I had to run next to him and then he would stop abruptly making "really sick" skid marks. Needless to say, this racing and stopping got old!

At some point in our trip which was designed to bless my grandsons, I was annoyed. So I had to remind myself, "He has other good qualities!" I even thought to myself how much he was like me. My grandmother had to endure all of my skid marks when I was growing up! So I began to think of all of the good qualities about my grandson whom I adore. I even thought maybe this excitement over skid marks could be used by the Lord for great things some day. Maybe this was not a bad quality although it was annoying to me at the time. This helped to ease my annoyance and I enjoyed the rest of our adventure.

I developed the saying, "I have other good qualities!" years ago when I had someone in my life who was very critical. This person criticized me all the time. The truth is some of the criticism about me was wrong but others were right on. I can tend to lean toward perfectionism so the criticism bothered me a lot at first. But as I prayed about it with the Lord, He reminded me of my good qualities. He also reminded me of the verse in Romans 3:23 which says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Jesus is the only perfect person who ever lived.

This little phrase the Lord revealed to me has changed my life. And I love that I can use it both ways. If someone is upset with me for being imperfect, I remind them, "I have other good qualities." And if I find myself annoyed by what I deem as imperfect in someone else, I remind myself, "He/she has other good qualities." Life is much more peaceful for me and for those around me if I am not expecting perfection from them or myself.

I am not suggesting we accept our bad qualities without taking responsibility. Each day, we need to present ourselves before the Lord to deal with our sinful nature. We need to read our Bible, pray, and ask for grace and mercy. When things are not right in our lives, we need to cooperate with Jesus to change them. But even with this practice, we are not going to be perfect in the eyes of those around us and they are not going to be perfect in our eyes. One thing is for sure though, we are loved. Jesus was willing to die for us! We are loved deeply by our Father in heaven even with all of our imperfections!

So I don't know who is making skid marks right now in your life, but I know they are created in the image of God. I know you can love them if you are willing to pray for them. And I know you can recognize their good qualities as you forgive their not so good qualities. Take the pressure off of yourself! Realize no one is perfect other than Jesus! And if you are ready when you see imperfection in anyone else or when they see it in you, you will respond by remembering, "Other Good Qualities!"

Genesis 1:27- So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.