2nd impressions

Second Impressions!

I have been thinking for the past week about how people perceive us. As I was prepping for our Sunday morning youth service, in which we are discussing new beginnings and how we get a new start and a clean slate at the beginning of each new school year, especially for those students moving to new schools. God led me to the realization that some people have negative impressions of us for things we have done in the past or things they have heard and how sometimes that makes new beginnings difficult. There are people that have negative opinions of us. We typically have two responses to that; (1) people pleasing and trying to get them to change the way they fell about us, or (2) saying “well forget them, I don’t need people to like me or approve of me”. I don’t think that either approach is the way God would have us respond. As ambassadors of Christ we ought to strive to reveal Christ and all his goodness through our lives. We ought to strive to change people’s impressions of us by giving them a godly impression. After all that is truly what an impression is, something that is pressed onto a person’s memory. We in our humanity press a bad image of ourselves and the Christ we represent into people’s minds. We can change that impression though. I keep a painting that my wife painted in my office. It has no frame and is painted on a cardboard painting canvas. It has sat for years on top of a book case and leaned against the wall. After leaning for years it became very concaved and it makes they Tuscan countryside portrayed in the picture look distorted. So when we moved just recently, I took the picture out of it’s box and laid it flat for 2 months. The picture is now flattened again and the image is a beautiful as ever. We have that ability with the image of ourselves that is shaped in others minds. It may be distorted or unattractive but we can, through a long series of positive impressions shape a godly image. First impressions aren’t lasting, continuous impressions are lasting.