One eye can pierce the external layer of something. Two eyes can look into a person’s soul. What we choose to do with our eyes is up to us. We can use them to look at the superficial side of someone (external looks) or we can use them to look at someone while we use our ears to listen and learn more about them…pierce their soul. We choose what we learn about others. We can choose to only see certain things or we can choose to see all things.

We tend to look at angry, violent people and simply judge them. We criticize them. What we don’t do is want to help them. Read more to see why this is something we must begin to unfold. Without getting to the root of the problem, it will be difficult to change anything. It starts here. One person at a time.

According to Merriam-Webster, discernment means “the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure : skill in discerning” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discernment). This basically means that we are able to tell the difference between things that don’t serve us and things that do. We are able to recognize people who truly want to support and encourage us and people who are only in it for personal gain. While it may seem this should be an easy task, as the Bible warns us in Matthew 7:15 (ERV) to “beware of false prophets. They come to you and look gentle like sheep. But they are really dangerous like wolves.”

I remember as far back as grade school being the outcast because I wore hand-me-down clothes and wasn’t part of a family that was well-off. For the first part of my life, I was raised by a single mom. In high school, I was told no more times than I could count, whether it was due to the hardships I was going through and letting my grades go, or just letting life take over and control me in general. I had no real direction, so I followed those who accepted me. Often times, that was not a good choice. I know that now. Back then though, acceptance was important to me because most of my life, I was not accepted. In college, my dream of becoming a college basketball player was crushed when the coach told me no for getting a full scholarship (she could only offer partial, which meant I had to work still and wouldn’t be able to focus on basketball or my studies). Later on, I was told no so many times. How I even made it into the military is still a blessing in disguise.

Staying in a relationship that does not foster care and compassion is dangerous to our overall well-being. In 2019 I met a woman named Jada Jordan. She and I are more like sisters now that we have come to know and respect one another more and more each day. However, when I met her, we were both going through a journey where we were learning how to stop listening to what others thought of us and who “they” thought we were and began to listen to what God wanted us to hear about ourselves. Things like being “fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalms 139:14) and learning that in finding the Lord, taking the time to build a relationship with Him, and being good, I would find favor, but if I searched for favor, nothing good would come (Proverbs 11:27).