1 Peter 1:22
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

There are too many times ladies that we allow that old phrase, “the first impression is a lasting one”, to be our excuse for not truly getting to know someone and we miss out on some meaningful relationships as a result! Stop for a minute and think about how silly it is that we will allow our first impression to be the deciding factor of whether or not someone else is worthy of our time! We need to be women of God who truly seek to know each other and stop allowing little things keep us from God’s best in our relationships! Maybe it isn’t your “first impression”, but maybe it is something someone else has said about her that has set your mind against her. Whatever it is that keeps us from coming together to build each other up in Him, needs to be evaluated. Now, don’t get me wrong here; there are some relationships that are like poison and you need to avoid them, but be careful that you don’t miss out just because of a first impression or gossip.

We seem to have lost the art of getting to know someone before deciding whether or not they are worth our time after all “time is precious”, the problem is…… to God that other lady is more precious than your time! We have become so superficial with each other that it is a rare thing for women to truly open up and to be real with each other. Meeting someone for coffee or lunch has become as ominous as a job interview! You find yourself trying to watch every single word or answer to questions as though your life is hanging in the balance because you aren’t sure just what might give that “first wrong impression” that tosses you to the curb. The best friendships on earth only develop from taking the time to truly get to know each other. Come on, seriously girl, have you ever had a lunch or coffee meeting with someone that you had scheduled and it ended up falling on a day that you knew you weren’t going to be your best self because of everything going on in your life and yet you knew you needed to go and put on your best face. Where is our grace ladies, where are our compassion and godly love? There has to be more to us than that in order for the world to see that there is a difference. 1 John 4: 7-8, “Brothers let us love one another, for love is of God and he that loves God is born of God and knows God, but he that loveth not, knoweth not God for God is love.” It is God’s love in us that will make the difference to the world around us.

Let me challenge you today to commit to taking the time to get to know those ladies around you. If you maybe feel as though that first impression wasn’t good, maybe you need to take time to get to know why. If you have heard some things that have made you think ill of her, maybe there’s more to the story and maybe there are more lies than truth to what you have heard ~ if it were you, how would you want someone else to handle it? If you are the one on the receiving end of a “bad impression”, take heart, God will reveal the truth in time and it is ultimately His approval we need. Seek truth, seek to build up and empower each other, don’t settle for just a surface relationship with each other get to know each other in order to help each other be accountable and grow in your walk with God! The best is yet to come!

Quote: (Thank goodness for this one! 🙂 )
“Reputation is what others think about you; character is what God knows about you.” Adrian Rogers

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