Judge Not

I really love the times when God is very obvious about teaching me something. I don't have to wonder. I don't second guess..."Is that you, God?" Nope, it is clear as day! Today, is one of those days. 

There are 4 stepmills at my gym. I was on one and the other 3 were also occupied. As I looked down the line of stepmills, I noticed that I was the only one "doing it right." I was so proud. Look at me, stepping all perfect and stuff! And it hit me real hard right after that thought wandered through my mind..."Who do you think you are? And who even cares anyway? At least they're trying. Mind your business girl." Somebody needed a humility check and somebody got one. Wow. I think I got a "Holy Spirit spanking."

Then as I'm in my bathroom getting ready after my workout, I am listening to Joyce Meyer doing a Bible study on Matthew 7. 

"Do not judge others and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye." Matthew 7: 1-5

As soon as she starts talking, I know this is a message that I'm supposed to hear and an area that I need to do some work on. "The easiest thing to have is an opinion," Joyce says in her opening comments. Yep, roger that! All you have to do is open up your Facebook app and scroll through your newsfeed: 

Opinion

Opinion

Opinion

Opinion, opinion, opinion

Thank you social media, we can now give our opinion to anybody and everybody 24/7. And let's face it, most of the time, nobody cares about our opinions. Our opinions are almost always tied to judgements, comparisons and rumors. 

Over the past three years I have gotten much better at not being so quick to judge. I must have been very "judgy" because the judgements I have received from people who don't even know me were pretty harsh and usually very inaccurate. I have been judged on what kind of mother I am by someone who had never even met me. It's so common for people to judge those they don't even know. We do this because we feel entitled and we feel proud. We also tend to judge most harshly those who have faults we see in our own selves. Ouch. 

While we are busy judging, we have no idea what the story is behind the circumstance or situation that we are passing judgement on. "God knows the why behind the what." Others don't know why we do the things we do and we don't know why others do what they do. Everybody is hurting and struggling with something and usually, we're all just doing the best that we know how to do. So, let's leave the judging to God like he asks us to.

It's our human nature to judge, to compare and to formulate opinions. That doesn't make it right. And it sure is something we have to be determined to be conscious about and correct ourselves when we find ourselves slipping.