Fran works as a project manager for a marketing company, and she is responsible for securing new clients and then managing their projects to completion. We find Fran finishing a conversation with one of her clients. “Yes, Marge, I will do my very best to have that ready by tomorrow. Uh-huh, yes, I understand. Okay, Marge, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Fran hangs up the phone and begins talking to herself, forgetting for a moment that Jesus, of course, hears everything she says or thinks.
“I don’t believe that woman. She is going to drive me nuts! Nothing we do is good enough for her. She makes last minute changes and then expects me to work miracles. And she is so rude. I really can’t stand her!”
Quietly she can sense the Spirit of God whispering to her: “Did you ever think that I love her as much as I love you?”
The thought startles her. “Well, yeah sure I knew that,” she thinks out loud. “You love everybody, Lord. But she’s a really nasty, demanding person. I’m sorry; I just don’t like her.”
As these thoughts continue, her mind goes back to a recent sermon she heard. Her pastor said there were people Jesus didn’t like, but he loved everybody. He said you don’t have to like everybody, but our commandment is to show God’s love to everybody.
“I thought you have to like someone, then you can love them,” Fran says to herself, “but I guess that’s not the way it is with God. The problem is, I just don’t know how to do it. There’s just no way I can love Marge. She’s obnoxious!”
“Do you want to love her?” again that quiet voice of Jesus catches her up short.
“Do I really want to love her? Tell you the truth—not really,” Fran admits. “I guess that’s my problem, isn’t it, Lord? But how can I even want to love someone like her?” Fran exclaims.
As she sits and thinks about that, Jesus says to her, “You can want to love her simply because you want to please me. I can help you love her. Why don’t you begin by praying for Marge every day?”
“Pray for Marge every day?” Fran repeats. “Really—will that make a difference?”
Jesus says, “It will make a difference in you, and that’s what is important.”
Fran determines to pray for Marge as Jesus has challenged her. Now she begins to do the work she promised Marge tomorrow, working diligently to get it perfect, because Marge is very demanding.
The next morning Fran is driving to work and praying for a lot of people, as she often does, and Marge comes to mind.
“I’d like to pray that lightning will strike her,” Fran says with a grin, knowing she halfway means it. But she attempts to pray for her, “Dear Lord, please help Marge to see how obnoxious she is and change the way she treats me.” Her prayer bounces off the car ceiling; she knows it’s the wrong prayer.
“Pray that Marge will change?” Jesus says to her. “That’s not exactly how you should pray for her, Fran.”
“But Lord, she should change. Her behavior is awful,” Fran defends herself.
Her spirit is uneasy. Somehow, she has to get beyond this selfish kind of praying, even though Marge is difficult. She can’t change Marge; she can only change herself.
“Well, what should I pray?” Fran finally asks.
And then she thinks of something she heard on the radio—praying she could see Marge the way God sees her. Praying for a new frame for Marge, a new way to see her, by putting her in a different frame.
“Put her in a different frame,” Fran thinks. “I guess I can do that, but she really is obnoxious.” As she drives along, she thinks about that further. “I guess I’ve had her in the obnoxious frame too long. Maybe I should pray for a new frame for Marge—a new way to look at her.”
Even though she feels a little foolish and not totally sincere, in obedience Fran starts her prayer again: “Dear Lord, please help me to see Marge the way you do. And please give me a new frame to put her in. There’s got to be something good about he
