Ok, so I don’t know about you, but in my friendship group there are a few people that get on my nerves - a lot! I instantly judge them every time they do something annoying or irritating. I actually find it really hard to be around them, let alone be pleasant to them. If you’ve never experienced this, you’ll probably thinking I’m a horrible person by now, but from talking to a few of my close friends about this, I’ve found a lot of people feel this way about at least one person in their lives.
So what do we do about it? Most times (or so I’ve found in my life) it turns into gossip. I start complaining to my friends about how annoying some people are and they join in and so it starts. But how many times in the bible does it warn against this? Just thinking about it I can name a few. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” – Matthew 7:1, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone” – John 8:7. Anyone who’s been at church or reading the bible would have come across them at one point or another, yet how many of us actually live by that?
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. – Matthew 7:2-5
I once heard that a lot of the time, the traits that annoy us about other people are traits that are (even in just a small way) present in ourselves. For a long time I didn’t understand that, I never looked at myself as critically as I looked at others. That soon changed as God started showing me how flawed I was too (don’t get me wrong I didn’t think I was perfect, but I didn’t think I was as messed up as I was either). Let’s just say it wasn’t exactly a fun experience, but was definitely necessary. I learned a lot about self reflection, but I still find it hard not judging people around me.
This is something that I’ve been struggling with for some time, and honestly, I don’t think its going to stop anytime soon, but I will continue to work on it.
Who in your life do you unfairly judge and how are you going to combat this?
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37
So what do we do about it? Most times (or so I’ve found in my life) it turns into gossip. I start complaining to my friends about how annoying some people are and they join in and so it starts. But how many times in the bible does it warn against this? Just thinking about it I can name a few. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” – Matthew 7:1, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone” – John 8:7. Anyone who’s been at church or reading the bible would have come across them at one point or another, yet how many of us actually live by that?
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. – Matthew 7:2-5
I once heard that a lot of the time, the traits that annoy us about other people are traits that are (even in just a small way) present in ourselves. For a long time I didn’t understand that, I never looked at myself as critically as I looked at others. That soon changed as God started showing me how flawed I was too (don’t get me wrong I didn’t think I was perfect, but I didn’t think I was as messed up as I was either). Let’s just say it wasn’t exactly a fun experience, but was definitely necessary. I learned a lot about self reflection, but I still find it hard not judging people around me.
This is something that I’ve been struggling with for some time, and honestly, I don’t think its going to stop anytime soon, but I will continue to work on it.
Who in your life do you unfairly judge and how are you going to combat this?
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Luke 6:37
No comments:
Post a Comment