Weekly Reflection – Socks

My daughter’s dog loves to steal my socks.

It’s like magic, I turn my back and any sock out in the open disappears. I usually find it in his mouth or on the dog bed upstairs. The majority of the time, I don’t even know that it was missing. Yesterday, I saw the dog prance away from the dirty laundry basket with one of my husband’s socks in his mouth. I was able to quickly retrieve it and return it to the dirty laundry.

The next day one of the same sock’s was missing from the clean laundry, so naturally, I assumed the doggy must have grabbed it again at some point. It turns out, I have bad aim because the sock ended up on the floor instead of the laundry basket when I was taking out the clean clothes from the dryer. I felt a bit guilty for blaming the dog, but in my defense, I knew I couldn’t have been to blame!

It really is funny how quickly we make assumptions and cast blame based on previous experiences, and I am not talking about canine relationships. It is our human relationships that can really suffer. I imagine all of us have experiences with making assumptions and casting blame with our loved ones. How cool would it be to have a desire to seek (and share) truth by being humble, gentle, patient, and loving without pointing the finger. To exchange the need to be right for the deep desire for unity of the Spirit that is real truth.

Are there any relationships in your life that lack unity of the Spirit? Are you casting blame without a desire for understanding? Making assumptions about another person’s heart or their motivations? What does “unity of the Spirit” look like to you?

“With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4: 2-3