Point Taken!

Playing off my last article (Get The Point?!), I want to take time now to address an issue I brought up before. Pointing does help get people’s attention and quite often reveals a personal point needing to be taken. If you will take the time to think with me here, you may learn a secret that will help resolve conflicts in your life and help you grow as GOD intends. By the end of this article, may you learn to say: Point Taken!

Emotions are an integral part of who we are as human beings. How we feel impacts our decisions, and thus all those around us. Your feelings will either take control of you or you will take control of your feelings and point them in the right direction. Your feelings not only serve as a way to experience life, but should also serve as a teacher. You should come to understand the reasons why you feel as you do.

What happens when you point your finger and what is happening that leads you to do this? Unless it involved just giving someone a direction to go for something, you likely have had some emotion to well up within you and lead you to stick out your finger and point toward someone. So, how many fingers do you have pointing at someone (assuming that you have the typical 5 fingers on your hand)? Likely, you have only one, or at the most two, if your thumb is grasping your other fingers (or perhaps just relaxed on top of them, possibly indicating that the emotion may not be quite as strong). Often, especially if your emotion is particularly strong, your thumb is pointing upward. Unless you have a strange way of pointing, you will have three fingers that are aimed right back at you. Take note of this! Three fingers are pointing back at you and only one (or at the most two) at someone else! If you find your thumb pointing up, you should let that remind you that the point you should be taking is to be looking up for help to resolve whatever led you to point.

Now, why do you think that most of your fingers (typically three) are pointing back at you? Let this serve as a reminder for you to pay close attention to what is happening! Get control of your emotions and consider why you are pointing in the first place. You likely have even more to consider yourself, especially since you have three fingers pointing back at you! This is a good way to judge yourself and if you judge yourself first, you won’t have to be judged by others (the Bible teaches this in 1 Corinthians 11:31 and in many other places and ways). Jesus spoke of this principle as getting the plank out of your own eye before trying to get the speck out of someone else’s eye (see Matthew 7:3-4). You may want to consider the context in Matthew 7, too, as instructive on the dangers of judging without seeing how you yourself may need to be judged. So, consider those three fingers back at you and take that point to evaluate your own heart and actions!

This point could be taken even further. I have wanted to write a book for many years on this principle, which I often refer to as “The P.K. Principle” (the pot calling the kettle black). The fact is, that due to our old, sinful nature, we are naturally blind to our own faults and even evaluating our own actions. GOD tries to get our attention on things we need to change by bringing it up to where we can see it. You tend to see things in others first, as you naturally look outward at those around you. When you see something in someone else that really bothers you, take that point to consider what GOD is trying to teach you first! Almost certainly, you will find that you are guilty of the very thing you are so upset at others about (or in some similar way). This really is an amazing principle that works. If applied, it will help you grow and be more of what GOD wants you to be!

Test this out, but be careful, you may find you have much to change! May you say, Point Taken!