Pause Before Picking Up a Stone
My dear son,
Before adding your voice when someone's wrongdoing is exposed, pause. Jesus told the woman's accusers that whoever was without sin should throw the first stone. After hearing him, they left one by one. His words gave them reason to examine themselves.
Look honestly at your own heart as you consider another person. You can name what is wrong without being drawn into the pleasure of humiliating someone. Truthfulness and mercy can shape the same conversation.
When speaking about people today, stay with facts you have checked and consider a path toward repair. Do not keep a stone of condemnation clenched in your hand. Ask me for mercy that makes honest change possible.
With all my love,
Your Father
John 8:6–9
WEB6They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
7But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.”
8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
9They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle.
A short reflection
When accusers test Jesus with a woman charged with wrongdoing, he tells the sinless person to throw first, and they leave one by one.
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