First Impressions

Are you quick to make first impressions? Do you base your like or dislike of someone on what someone else thinks of them?

I remember in grade school when a new person came to class most of us didn't get to know that person before we formed an opinion. We formed our opinion on what the most popular girl in class thought. If she liked 'em; we liked 'em and if she didn't......well....we didn't.

As adults are we quick to decide about a person just by the way they look, their ...a...ccent, their actions?

Do we decide if we like that person because of what someone else thinks or says about them? Why is another person's opinion more important to us than forming our own opinion? Or by getting to know them and forming a possible friendship with someone we have just met? How many real friendships have we failed to develop with another just because one of our friends or relatives speaks against that person? What makes our friend or relative's opinion so important? Can we think for ourselves as individualists or do we have a collectivism personality?

"But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say about you. He makes up his own mind." Romans 2:10B-11 The Message