by Heather Phillips

In the past couple of years a change has been occurring within me. I used to be (and often still am) a judgmental sort of person. I started noticing myself having negative judgmental feelings toward others who were doing something unsafe such as riding a motorcycle without a helmet, or speeding and passing unsafely while driving.

My natural response to this would be to get angry, and think that the person would “get theirs” by ending up in an accident – so obviously not a very Jesus-like response.

Then one day while I was driving and a young man on a motorcycle popped a wheelie on I-95, I realized that if Jesus were seeing this person he’d want to show love, not judgment. All of us are guilty of using bad judgment somewhere in our lives; and we wouldn’t others to think worse of us, or judge us unfairly because of it.

So, instead of giving vent to my negative feelings of how stupid my fellow man could be, I prayed that God would keep the young man safe. I do that now whenever I see an unsafe situation people are involved in. The people I pray for may never know it. However, I believe it makes a difference not only for them, but it has been transforming me from the somewhat self-righteous person I was to someone who cares about people whether she knows them or not.