Proverbs 7:2
Guard my command, and live, and my instruction like the apple of your eye.
The son in this verse should guard his father’s instruction like he guards the “apple” (or middle) of his eye.
The expression is actually “the little man of the eye,” which is comparable to our expression “apple of the eye.” The phrase may have developed from the idea that people could see themselves reflected in miniature in the pupils of others. Whatever the case, it is clear that the phrase refers to one’s pupil.
The eye is among the most tender spots on one’s body. So it is with great passion that we tend to guard our eyes from any physical harm.
How much care do you devote to God’s instruction?
Matthew 7:1-5
“You do need to be given a new operating system. I don’t care what you are doing. You cannot approach that daily work, that daily job, your family with what I call the dualistic mind, the judgmental, comparative, competitive mind, which most of us are entirely trained in-so much so that we think it is the only mind.Jesus refers to this as the judgmental mind. That’s why He says: “Do not judge” (Matthew 7:1). Maybe we would simply say, “Do not label” things. It is just a way of trying to take control and often a game of superiority. The judgmental mind tries to know everything by merely comparing it to something else, which is to start with a negative first step. It is far removed from knowing things in themselves, and forthemselves. Such low-level attempts at knowing will never get you anywhere close to mystical experience. That’s the simplest way to say why the great spiritualteachers always have some form of “Do not judge.” The judgmental mind is all too self-referential and closes down the open horizon right away.”-Richard Rohr
To become the “Unconditional Love Machines” we are called by God to be, I believe we must take the time and energy to get to know and love people in themselves, and for themselves.
Every single human is unique unto themselves in YHWH. They are not someone to simply be measured or at worst, dismissed, on some shallow comparative grounds.
May we all this day see each person for who they are, closer to how Papa sees them. Let us make the decision now to know and love someone before we judge them, for if we know and love first, judgment will pass to its proper place of priority–nonexistence.