“You’re new…”

“Where did you move from?” one mom asks another…

As their toddlers play in the neighborhood park.

The new neighbor answers…

Then runs off to stop her adventurous three-year-old from jumping off the top of the slide.

The mom who asked the question pulls out her smart phone…

Searches for the newcomer’s former town…

“Well,” she says to a friend…

“Look how small the average house size is in that little village!”

“And the median income is so low!”

“Who could live on that little money?”

“I guess we know all we need to know about her!”

I listened and wondered how anybody could think those thoughts…

Or say those words…

Then I realized that when I heard where the woman had moved from, I had exactly the same thoughts…

And wondered again how anybody…

Myself included…

Could think such things.

Could say such things…

Jesus has an answer…

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.  Matthew 15:18-20

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.   Luke 6:45

If  my heart is evil…

If evil thoughts and words and deeds flow out of the heart …

What can I do?

How can I replace the evil in my heart with good?

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Philippians 4:8

But how will I know those things which are true and honorable and just and pure and lovely?

By testing them against His word…

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.  Psalm 119:105

By putting God and His kingdom above our own desires…

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Matthew 6:33

By surrendering to God…

And the reality that though God calls us to do all these things…

There is only one true answer to our evil…

And that answer is God’s grace…

His grace offered only through…

Jesus Christ and him crucified… 1 Corinthians 2:2