What we don't know...

This has been on my heart for quite some time but I have not felt directed by God to post about it until now. The longer I walk around on this earth, the more I see how our perception of others can affect our relationships with them & others. Sometimes we have an initial "gut" reaction to someone & sometimes it's right on target...sometimes it is not. I think many of us are too quick to judge someone on one thing without taking many other factors into consideration. Sadly we just don't do this with people that we may encounter on a more frequent basis, but that we also do this with complete strangers...some of which we will never see again. Why do we do this? How can we make ourselves stop doing this? In case you are unsure of what I'm talking about...let me give you some examples.

***You see a friend & her family eating at a restaurant although you personally know that they didn't have enough money to pay the electric bill this month. So you assume that they don't have enough money to pay their bills because they are spending their money on other things such as going out to eat. What you don't know is that your friend's mother sent her some money in the mail the day before not only to pay the electric bill but some extra so she could take the family out to eat...something they haven't done in three months.
***You see a mother or a father at a local store being really "harsh" with their child(ren). It's making you very uncomfortable & you just assume that this parent has some major issues & you are really concerned for the child's welfare. What you don't know is that this parent is one of the most loving & caring person's in the world & that this particular child is very strong willed & is constantly pushing the limits with their parents & after a long day of pushing them, slapped the parent in the face when you weren't watching.
***A waiter at the restaurant you visited is really rude & not focused at all on his job. What you don't know is that he just lost his wife & two year old son in a car accident three weeks prior.
***A friend of your's is to be in the upcoming wedding of her cousin. She loves her cousin dearly & has no "real" interest in her fiancee & expresses this to you, but also tells you that she feels like God is telling her that they won't get married & that somehow she will marry this person instead. You are totally baffled by this but you know that you're friend is a Christian & there is something causing her to feel this way. So you pray for her & the situation all though none of it makes sense to you until a day before the wedding, when her cousin is killed in a car accident. Two years later your friend does marry her deceased cousin's fiancee.

So what should we do in these situations? We need to stop our initial reaction of jumping to conclusions & pray. We do not know the whole story nor do we fully know what God is doing in people's lives. We need to pray for the people involved. To do anything more or less before praying can prove to be very harmful.