First Things First

S - "If you love only someone who loves you, where’s the grace in that? Even sinners love people who love them. If you are kind only to someone who is kind to you, where’s the grace in that? … You can see the speck in your friend’s eye, but you don’t notice the log in your own eye. How can you say, “My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you don’t see the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First, get the log out of your own eye; then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend’s eye." Luke 6 TS

O - Jesus is relentless on this issue for all issues. The concerns, questions and exhortations never begin with another.  Always with oneself.  The question is not am I being loved or greeted by others but am I loving and greeting them.  It's not the lecture or input I give to another but the one I embrace from him which is to carry the day every day.  Not only does the speck in another's eye never excuse the log in mine … it can never be the place I start.  First things first … the log in my own eye.  Grace begins there.   

A - In the life, mind, heart and words of Jesus the starting place for everything is always the same.  It's always with oneself. The change our world needs starts with me not another.  It will never come through a policy, law or opinion. It can and must come through me. The most important person for me to influence, to reach, in any day and in any circumstance will always be me.  I agree with Jesus to always start there. 

P - God who loves the world to this very day,

Thank you for giving us the place to start … a place always available to start.  I admit that I'm never out of your reach and never out of my own.  I accept the assignment and the help to reach me.  Let me be the first to love all; first to greet all; first to get the log out of my own eye. 

Grateful to be living and praying in Jesus,

Steve