'The ability to see ourselves

The ability to see ourselves as others see us

A young woman writes that on three successive Sundays she heard three different preachers, and that each one of them spoke very earnestly on the importance of self-control . This persistent recurrence of the same lesson had set her to thinking of the subject, and she wrote with some alarm regarding her own lack of self-mastery.

She saw that she had been allowing herself to fall into certain habits which are very improper, which are marring the sweetness of her disposition and making her disagreeable.

She has been living in a boarding-house, and she began to see that she had been behaving herself in a very selfish way toward others. She had permitted herself to become exacting and critical, finding fault with everything. She had been acting like a peevish, fretful child, losing her temper and giving way to her feelings in a most incorrect fashion.

It does not take long for one to get a reputation as a discontented person, as unreasonable, as hard to get along with, as disagreeable, or as a gossip, or a meddler in other people's matters. We need to keep it in our prayers continually that we may have the ability to see ourselves as others see us .

It would be a good thing if we all were to read the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians at least once a week all through our life. It would be like looking into a mirror which would expose the unattractive things in our behavior, that we might cure them.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

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