I am constantly working on something in my life. Judging! I feel like I am always judging people and then making assumptions about them. I've been praying for help for sometime now to not be so quick to judge people. I pray even harder when I realize I've been judging unfairly as I did not understand the whole situation.
I found a great article while researching the topic of judging and how we are told we should not judge. The article is from 1972 by N. Eldon Tanner. It may be old but it is amazing! It's titled "Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged". If you have time go and read it.
One of the reasons why I feel bad about when I judge is the scripture comes to mind of how we will be judged using the same judgement we dealt out. Now knowing that I am human and I judge unfairly I certainly don't want to be judged that way. The scripture is found in Matthew chapter 7 versus 1 through 5. "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 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? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” This scripture is a great reminder that when we are dealing out unfair judgements we probably have bigger faults in our own lives that we should be dealing with. And if we were taking care of our own problems then perhaps we could be there when someone else needs us to help them with theirs.
"It seems common practice for people to talk about their friends and neighbors and to criticize their seeming peculiarities and weaknesses. In fact, it is so general that one would think that gossiping about and judging others was the thing to do. How often have we heard of young men who were criticized, judged, and ridiculed because of their peculiarities and yet who eventually became leaders in their different fields of endeavor." (N. Eldon Tanner, “‘Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged’,”) How many times do we catch ourselves judging people or gossiping about them? It really is easy to do. I know that the adversary knows it is a weakness of mine and is constantly bombarding me with situations or feelings for me to fall prey to. There's been several Sundays where I will leave my home after praying for strength not to judge and then 15 minutes into the service I am judging someone. I then feel awful and have the "Doh!" moment and ask Heavenly Father to forgive me and try again.
"When we try to judge people, which we should not do, we have a great tendency to look for and take pride in finding weaknesses and faults, such as vanity, dishonesty, immorality, and intrigue. As a result, we see only the worst side of those being judged."(N. Eldon Tanner, “‘Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged’,”) It is so easy to see the worst in people. For some reason the worst is easiest to latch onto and not the good. For instance I work with the young women in my ward and there is a girl who I constantly judge. I have a very hard time finding anything good about her. I feel awful that I have these feelings about her but it makes sense now after reading this article. I let myself dwell for so long on the negative aspects of what I see in her that I can't find the good. I need to let go of those thoughts and start seeing the good she has.
In the scriptures in the book of John we find the story about a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. She was brought before the Savior for judgement and he simply said "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then, after stooping and writing in the sand, he looked up and said, “… where are those thine accusers?” (John 8:7, 10, N. Eldon Tanner, “‘Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged’,”) The Savior made it very clear that we are not to judge. Only Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know us inside and out and understand our hearts and intentions. They have the whole story and will judge righteously.
We need to do our best to not judge and when we find ourselves judging or gossiping we need to repent quickly and ask for strength to not do it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment