Learning How To Be Critical In a Growth Way

I went to a bible study this week on the topic of Avoiding a Sour Spirit. I was particularly interested in this topic because it is about judging others. This is one of the pitfalls that a counselor can fall into so I wanted to delve into this topic to learn how I can learn not to judge others. It was important to hear that assessing someone else is not a "thou shalt not" but we have to learn to balance it with how far and how low we let it go. Jesus tells us to look to ourselves first before passing judgement on others. I can't tell you how many times I have thought to myself, "stop and get the log out of your own eye" But Jesus didn't end with that. After looking at ourselves and checking our motives we need to first assess if you have a trusting relationship with the person you are wanting to confront. If this is a relationship that can withstand criticism than you have to best figure out how to approach the person with this criticism. This analogy given was a beautiful description of criticism: Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a person's growth without destroying it's roots. Not all of us are the same, so like I said before, you have to really know the person to find the best way to approach them without crushing their spirit. The main thing to consider following is to always think good of others and continually pray to see all people through God's eyes.

If you judge people, you have not time to love them. Mother Theresa

Matthew 7:5 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.

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 127

We were given Good Friday off at my work which is unusual but we were thankful. Unfortunately, the rest of the alarm industry was working away on Friday so come Monday morning our work was piled high and a power outage over the weekend created some trouble to work through. I was busy working away when I was called to the operations manager office. It’s either I did something wrong or they have something they want me to do. So, as she started to tell me it was about a customer who was given a permit but turns out is not in that jurisdiction, I started to feel the defensiveness kick-in within me. I immediately went into explaining how tedious the task is and how a mistake could be made. I had to go and re-check stuff and found no other mistakes which thankfully made me feel good and my office manager was happy to have that information to pass along to the jurisdiction. The jurisdiction contact is a very nice lady and responded with a nice email that basically said the same thing. We are human and with all the addresses and details we have to deal with, it is understandable that mistakes will be made. This seemingly instinctive defense mode I get into when someone is criticizing me or telling me of mistakes I have made is part of my temperament. It will be something I will be looking further at within myself and looking to the Holy Spirit to help me overcome this weakness and give me the means to be gentle in my response to criticism and not become defensive but have the confidence in who I am and what I do.

Proverbs 3:26 For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.