While lecturing, I’m still learning the lesson to never judge a person’s thoughts by their facial expressions while they listen to me speak.

I had two women in an audience recently, that absolutely looked like they wanted to be anywhere but there. One woman kept looking to the side like she was trying to find the nearest exit out. Her face showed no sign of approval of anything I said. I read doubt and skepticism on her face. The other woman didn’t know how to smile, it seemed. She scowled, appeared dark in her thoughts, disapproving and uncomfortable. She looked like she had erred in her decision to attend. Not once did I see her smile, or nod approvingly, or even gleam a little bit. It was not an unhappy look so much as a “keep away from me” mental stance.

Most everyone else in the audience looked wonderful. Lots of smiles, expressions of joy, and plenty of positive energy abounded. But it was hard for me to not notice these two “tough” audience members.

But prove me wrong again–when the event was finished and people came up to talk with me, they were two of the most enthused members in the whole room! They lit up like light bulbs at the end with joy and happiness. They loved the points I made and wanted me to know how thrilled they were they came. The smile-less woman even smiled!

You just can’t judge a book by its cover…or a person by their facial expressions!

Later I asked myself, “Where did those negative thoughts about those two women come from that entered my thinking while I was speaking?” I did not create those suggestions. The two individuals certainly didn’t create them because they were enjoying the lecture. So, where did the negative impressions come from?

I thought about “Satan going to and fro” mentioned in the book of Job, looking for mischief to make on the face of the earth. And that was the explanation. The negative impressions did not come from me or anyone in that room. It was the carnal mind at large trying to disrupt a beautiful experience happening between me and my audience during that lecture.

And this drove home to me again the importance of defending one’s thought from outside evil suggestion.

And then I thought about marriages and other human relationships. How often do we draw incorrect conclusions about our spouse’s thought or another loved one? I pondered. And how often does erroneous evaluation destroy otherwise good relationships?

For instance, if a woman presumptuously believes she knows her boyfriend is going to be really mad at some new idea she has, she could very well approach him from that point of view and actually create discord where there would have been no discord. And the same rule applies at work. If we think we know our bosses’ thoughts, and we judge incorrectly, we could create all kinds of unnecessary misery.

So, the lesson is, judge spiritually, not materially! Don’t jump to conclusions until you know the facts. The material senses are major avenues of error and mislead all the time. Spiritual sense tells a better story!