Be kind and compassionate to one another.
—Ephesians 4:32
My father was the unofficial greeter at his church. He arrived early, assumed his post, gave a handshake, a smile, and a “God bless you” to everyone who came through the door.
As the years passed, so did his hearing; old age found him trapped in a world of near-total deafness. He suspected that people sometimes spoke to him and received no response because he hadn’t heard them. Fearing that they might consider him an unfriendly, grumpy old man, he abandoned his greeting post.
It broke my heart. But I knew—and knew that he knew—that anyone who had that impression of him held a false view.
Everyone we encounter forms an impression of us. Is it true or false?
Don’t pass judgment based on a first impression.