Here's Mud in Your Eye

    The other day when I was at the grocery store, I was unable to enter a parking row and another driver was unable to exit it because an older woman had parked behind two other parked, but thankfully empty, cars in that row. Since my only other choice was exiting the parking lot and starting over, I waited for her to finish whatever she was doing there and leave. As our cars passed, she turned to me and said, "Don't give ME your dirty looks!" They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, apparently dirty is also. I could not have given her the stink eye, even had I wanted to, because the sun had darkened my transitions lenses. The only portion of my face capable of looking unhappy was my mouth, which was wearing the same half smile I gave any stranger in passing. Since sagging jowls make us menopause mamas look frowny, I have to smile a little just to break even. Unless my earlobes looked angry, the dirty look she saw was coming from inside her eyes, not the outside.
     It is true that I was not impressed with her driving ability, but people tend to see what they expect to.  Liars think people are lying to them. Dishonest people think others are ripping them off. I assume she was the kind of person who gives dirty looks and makes rude comments. I appreciate her willingness to spare me the effort of coming up with my own dirty look, but it is hard to be a good testimony for Christ when even my rare moments of good behavior are interpreted through dirty lenses.
     I had the same problem in high school as a new Christian. Two of the girls I sat with at lunch time not only loved to talk crudely, but were giving a vulgar spin to my most innocent comments. Through them I understood Titus 1:15 which says, "To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. Both their minds and consciences are corrupted." Through this experience I also learned about prayer. I couldn't just sit with another group of friends, I didn't have that many, but I wanted to maintain a good testimony, so I prayed about the situation. Shortly thereafter one of the girls moved and the other changed schools. This was my first answered prayer as a new believer.
     I try to pray for those who see life through self inflicted dirty looks, but I'm sure they would misinterpret that also. Believers are unbelievable to people with "mud in their eye".