Business is built and sustain on relationships. Good hires, synergistic partnerships, mutually beneficial deals/sales. Discernment is needed – from two perspectives. The most commonly understood is our discernment of the other person’s façade. We all have them – consciously or subconsciously. Few are totally transparent.

Less understood is affect of our own paradigms: The way we view the world and the people in it. Upbringing, fears (real and false), preferences, personality and a dozen other factors affect our initial impressions of other people. Failure to correct faults in our filter make understanding the value (or danger) of someone else more difficult.

Here’s a good place to start:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting. Psalms 139:23-24

Marketplace Ministry Tip: The end of the year is a good time to assess your business plan, your resources, etc. How about your relationship filter? Could you use a little adjustment in the way to view other people? Ask God for an in depth yearend review.

Share the truth; it will make someone free.

Humbly yours and forever His,