1 Peter 2:1-3

"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious."
1 Peter 2:1-3


I was reading this and thinking about having open minds. Sometimes it is hard to be open in our society, because we're worried about people cheating us or taking advantage of us in other ways, and so we doublethink everything we say and do. In some ways, this is good. It helps us to be careful and not to offend people. On the other hand, sometimes we need to be more open, and not make up our minds ahead of time about some things... being more accepting of people that we've never met or don't understand, for instance. Or even when people seem to be making decisions that we think are poor, maybe trying to see things from their perspectives. It often makes sense that way, and shows us a way to solve the problem. ... It's hard to do that, because as this verse says, we often have malice, or envy, or evil speaking that we have to overcome first.
This verse of course isn't talking about general openness to others, but openness specifically to God, but those feelings we have about other people can get in the way of our relationship with God. And with him, it is just disaster if we make up our minds beforehand and choose what we'll listen to and what we won't. If the only thing we allow God to say to us is yes, okay, do that... then we miss the chance for him to tell us about truly better options, or the "no, you aren't ready for that" message that can often save us a lot of heartache.
I love the image of the newborn child, just having tasted the graciousness of God, and wanting more. No complications or complexities... just really really wanting more of that goodness. Today, let's try to simplify our lives a little and get rid of the distractions. Let's let go of preconceived ideas about how our lives should go, and all the things we want for the wrong reasons... and just seek God because we want more good in our lives.