Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.  [I Peter 4:8]

While driving home from the beach on Sunday, we wound up in bumper-to-bumper traffic which delayed our trip home by almost 2 hours!  When stuck in traffic with tons of other people you learn a few things!  (One of which is DO NOT INGEST FLUIDS!  - Bathroom facilities are too far and few between!)  You also learn that people tend to be inconsiderate, selfish, miserable and just downright idiotic!

I also learned, amidst the inclination to exhibit serious road rage, when I was considerate, thoughtful and kind to the other drivers – it made me feel better.  I knew that I was glorifying God by treating them the way I would have hoped to be treated and NOT how they were treating me!

In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.  [Matthew 7:12]

The fact remains, that not unlike this traffic jam, we are all in this world together.  Each of us is just trying to get where we’re going the best way that we know how!  That’s not to say that too many of us have figured out how to do it correctly or that there aren’t better ways!

The fella ‘in the car’ next to you may be a jerk, but perhaps he’s just learned that a family member is very ill or even dying and he’s simply trying to cope with the news.  Maybe the lady ahead of you ‘that just cut you off’ has been diagnosed with untreatable cancer and is trying to figure out how to tell her children.  -Both people oblivious to the world going on around them!

Regardless of the unexplainable behavior of the other ‘drivers’ in our lives, we are all just doing the best we can with what we are given.  (Granted, some do better than others!)  The fact remains, that we have no idea what drives people to make mistakes or bad decisions and quite frankly, it isn’t up to us to judge them.

1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.

2 “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

4 “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?

5 “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.   [Matthew 7:1-5]

Although it can be difficult (some times are more difficult than others) we need to love one another through our inadequacies, shortcomings and disappointments!

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

12 rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,

13 contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

16 Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

17 Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.

19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.

20 “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.”

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  [Romans 12:10-21]