{"id":6910,"date":"2025-12-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6910"},"modified":"2025-12-12T20:27:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T02:27:57","slug":"who-understands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=6910","title":{"rendered":"Who Understands?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Short and sweet thought for the week\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Most of us yearn to be understood. We want people to know where we are coming from, why we do what we do, and what we mean. Yet so many times we are misunderstood, but not by God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God understands us and knows us far better than we know ourselves (Psalm 139:1). He views us through the eyes of grace, so we should never be afraid to bare our souls to Him for He loves us completely. When we feel like no one else seems to understand, that\u2019s our opportunity to draw close to the One who does. Only He can refresh us, renew us, and heal us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when it comes to others in our lives, perhaps it\u2019s more important that we strive to understand them, than have them understand us. St. Francis of Assisi\u2019s famous prayer gives us some insight on this. Most focus on the \u201cmake me an instrument of your peace\u201d section which is very significant, but I find the second paragraph just as meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.<\/strong> For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible admonishes us to esteem others better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). Perhaps one way to start would be to make St. Francis’s prayer our prayer, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026The Lord searches every heart and understands every<\/em>
desire and every thought…” ~1 Chronicles 28:9 (NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Short and sweet thought for the week\u2026 Most of us yearn to be understood. We want people to know where we are coming from, why we do what we do, and what we mean. Yet so many times we are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6936,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6910\/revisions\/6936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}