Exactly. It's hard for me to look at things from someone else's point of view. I often can't do it on my first try--sometimes, I have to do it quite a few times before I'm able to understand why they believe what they do. I can't understand all the reasons someone believes what they do since, like you said, their experiences are not mine, but I can attempt to understand some of them. Sometimes, the reason may be "I've had a bad experience with Christianity," but sometimes it's not, and I accept that.
For me, though, I'm just learning all of this. I'm just becoming the person I believe God wants to be. I'm only just beginning to really witness and learn about all of these different things. I'm only just growing in my faith, so I can't know everything. I never claim to know everything. All I can do is trust in God, both to reveal Himself to me but to reveal Himself to my friends and family as well.
So, I'm trying to look at those reasons, but oftentimes, I can only make an educated guess why they believe what they do. Once I get the best guess I think I'll receive, I don't try to change their views--I try to reveal God's strength, love and power through what I do day to day, not through preaching and forcing them to believe what I do, because that rarely (in the case of speaking about your faith and "preaching," for lack of a better word) if not *never* works all by itself.
So, I agree wholeheartedly. This is just something I'm currently working on and trying to improve. :)
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Date: 2008-05-27 07:43 pm (UTC)From:Exactly. It's hard for me to look at things from someone else's point of view. I often can't do it on my first try--sometimes, I have to do it quite a few times before I'm able to understand why they believe what they do. I can't understand all the reasons someone believes what they do since, like you said, their experiences are not mine, but I can attempt to understand some of them. Sometimes, the reason may be "I've had a bad experience with Christianity," but sometimes it's not, and I accept that.
For me, though, I'm just learning all of this. I'm just becoming the person I believe God wants to be. I'm only just beginning to really witness and learn about all of these different things. I'm only just growing in my faith, so I can't know everything. I never claim to know everything. All I can do is trust in God, both to reveal Himself to me but to reveal Himself to my friends and family as well.
So, I'm trying to look at those reasons, but oftentimes, I can only make an educated guess why they believe what they do. Once I get the best guess I think I'll receive, I don't try to change their views--I try to reveal God's strength, love and power through what I do day to day, not through preaching and forcing them to believe what I do, because that rarely (in the case of speaking about your faith and "preaching," for lack of a better word) if not *never* works all by itself.
So, I agree wholeheartedly. This is just something I'm currently working on and trying to improve. :)