I recently asked someone to read through something I had drafted but wasn’t comfortable hitting “send” until someone I trusted took a look for accountability. I needed an extra step of filtering.

What if every response we made – with our words, actions, or even facial expressions – ran through this filter:

In a way, I am responding to God.

Would it change your response?

Because the truth is, despite the person to whom you’re responding, your response is always connected to God in some way. How are you honoring or dishonoring him? How are you reflecting him? How are you trusting him?

Before you start bending your responses into what you think God would stamp “approve” upon, I’m not talking about scrubbing all communication to seem squeaky clean. God isn’t squeaky clean. He is pure, but in his purity, he has some of the qualities that can make us squirm a bit – anger, justice, power – things we might doubt we can purely portray. We’re more likely to rationalize, misusing them at times and avoiding them other times.

Responding with and to God in mind doesn’t mean people will always respond the way we want or expect, just as people have a variety of responses to God himself. But why not have the courage and respect to try? Why not respond with truth and love?

One of the Scriptures taped securely to the front of my “divorce folder” is Galatians 5:6b: “What matters is faith working through love.” That filter for my response always makes a difference.