an analogy about smelly feet

A little over a month before we were married, I was helping Mike clean his apartment before move-out. I was hunched over scrubbing the backsplash and wall around the oven that was caked in grease. Every now and again I would get a whiff of a pungent odor. College boy smell. I was happy to help clean, but I started to get really annoyed about the smell. After I got home to my apartment and slipped my shoes off, reality hit. I had in fact been getting whiffs of my own smelly shoes. In my eternal family class we discussed the scripture:

Matthew 7: 3-4
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

I remembered the smelly feet incident and how in life we can choose to be offended, hurt, or annoyed for the smelly feet of those around us, when in fact the stench is coming from our own selves. We need not worry about the imperfections of our peers, but work on repenting and perfecting ourselves and simply just love others. As we love those around us and see them through Christ's eyes, we grow closer to him and can love others more perfectly.