How’s Your Filtration System?

Happy Monday, friends! I hope that you’ve been enjoying lots of sunshine in your neck of the woods. Every town I visited this past week greeted me with beautiful sunrises, puffy clouds, gorgeous sunsets, and even a rainbow to remind me of God’s covenant. I posted a picture of puffy clouds and a rainbow and asked my Facebook friends what they saw in the clouds. Everyone pointed out the rainbow, but I also got all sorts of guesses regarding the clouds: a puppy, hearts, an elephant, a moose, and an angel. See for yourselves. What can you get from this picture?

Truth is, we see what we want to see, and filter everything else out. We focus on what’s important to us. If someone points something out that we hadn’t considered, we may entertain it for a second or two, but we often times revert to the image we first saw.  For instance, at first glance, I saw a puppy flanked by a rainbow. When a friend pointed to the darker clouds on the lower right side and said it looked like someone dancing, I could see it — sorta, but I was really focused on the puppy.

We do the same thing with the hundreds of messages we hear throughout the day. We hear them, but we listen to what interests us, and we filter everything else out. We like the positive messages, the flattering ones, and those that are in sync with our core values. The stuff we filter out is typically useful too, but if we’re not receptive to it, we miss opportunities to learn and grow.

God will sometimes send us messages through unlikely messengers. Ain’t that the truth? We like to call those folks haters, but even the hater’s message has a little truth in it.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. ~John 8:32

Jesus said it first — The truth will set you free. So many of us are bound by the lies that we tell ourselves or that others have told us. We filter out important parts of messages because they’re hard to hear. Instead of taking the message from the person that God chose to deliver it, we ignore it because we may not like, respect,or know the bearer of the message. Truthfully, sometimes those messages aren’t always shared in love, but shouldn’t we at least consider the content of the message for a minute or two? I admit that it’s hard to hear the truth sometimes if it isn’t draped in flowery words, but filtering it out and casting it aside doesn’t benefit us at all. Instead, we should learn to use our discernment as the filter that pulls out the truth and leaves the trash behind. The truth is what will free us — not the trash. Remember this strategy the next time you hear the unvarnished truth. Filter out the truth and throw out the trash. May blessings abound! <3

Before you leave today, check out my Music Monday selection from Francesca Battistelli entitled “If We’re Honest.”

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.