What do you see?

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.  1 Corinthians 13:11-12

What are some of the thought processes that distort our understanding of what is true, loving, or just?  They come in as many forms as there are situations.  Depending upon our history and the way we are wired, we tend to pay attention to what stimulates either attraction or revulsion.  We respond to what we see outside of ourselves as it either affirms or threatens how we "see" ourselves.  

When we are rooted in childish ways, we sustain a focus upon what seems to apply directly to US!   

Think of any child you know and you can most likely recall times when that child said (passionately!) 
      "Me first"  or "Mine" or "I want...." or "No!"   

At what point in time does a person begin to say:  "You first!"  "Here, I want you to have this"

That shift in language indicates a shift in perception.  It indicates that the speaker "sees" the other as someone who is as precious as the self.  All of the fears and suspicion that blur the essential beauty of the other are removed when we "see" the other through the eyes of Love.  

Many of us look into a mirror and we see nothing but faults or areas that we think need improvement.  Next time you look in the mirror consider the image as one of God's children -- perfect in God's sight -- yet no more and no less perfect than any of the others you may see.  

That is mature thinking.  That is "putting away childish things".  

(photo courtesy of Tori Vrcan)