ARE YOUR MOVES CRITIQUED?

Hello again and I am back with you and I am sure you are ready to continue our little study…go grab that cup of coffee that you can already taste… mmmmm… make sure you add a little cream and sugar if you like. Ok… now, we were talking about forgiveness in the last post of the study so we will take that and twist it up a little bit as we tighten up the study a little…..part of the forgiveness process is learning not to be over bearing in your critiquing process….this is one factor that many overlook but think about what the bible has to say on this stance Mat 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Pro 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Now, you are saying, these verses say judge and what does the tongue have to do in all this….well think about it here for a minute….we look at the word judge as a noun many times ….the judge wants to see you or go before the judge, instead of the verb form. We have so easily put other words in its place like the famous words, in my opinion….every one has an opinion right….opinions are good but it is how you act or react to them. Now why do we do this? You can imagine with this little slight of words how different people would see themselves. If the correct terminology were placed it would go like this….well my judgment of that situation ….. or that person, or their actions, and I am sure you can name more ways than these in how we use the word opinion. This makes and allows us all to be judges and not feel guilty about it…. I find it hard in my own life not to be a judge of others and their actions more so sometimes with my own children. Here is a little story written almost 100 years ago by W. Livingston Larned who wrote of the anguish of a father who loses focus, read on and enjoy.... Father Forgets: Listen, son: I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek and the blond curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen into your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside. There are the things I was thinking, son: I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor. At breakfast I found fault, too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started off to play and I made for my train, you turned and waved a hand and called, “Goodbye, Daddy!” and I frowned, and said in reply, “Hold your shoulders back!” Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road I spied you, down on your knees, playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive and if you had to buy them you would be more careful! Imagine that, son, from a father! Do you remember, later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. “What is it you want?” I snapped. You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestuous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs. Well, son, it was shortly afterwards that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding, this was my reward to you for being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much of youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years. And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your character. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me good night. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside in the darkness, and I have knelt there, ashamed! It is a feeble atonement; I know you would not understand these things if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: “He is nothing but a boy, a little boy!” I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday you were in your mother’s arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much, too much. Look for the good in all people and understand them, if possible, and that makes the forgiveness process much easier to complete. A man by the name of Dr. Johnson once said…God himself, sir, does not purpose to judge man till the end of his days, then why should you or I. Dale Carnegie wrote these few words: Instead of condemning people, let’s try to understand them. Let’s try to figure out why they do what they do. That is a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism and breeds sympathy tolerance and kindness. To know all is to forgive all. Now, oft times when we criticize someone we tell them and that is where the tongue gets us in trouble. I know personally, as I am sure that many of you have also, and probably with out realizing it hurt someone in some way with what you have said to them. This my friends is a given in life, it is a life experience. Have you ever had any one tell you, well I think that is a bad idea or don’t do that for some reason or other. We all have…. And the bad part about it is that we have returned the deed to someone else!! Through studying and the learning process on the principles of relationships, I have learned, that if you want your relations to people in any aspect of your life to change you need to love people and the only way to love them is to drop the criticism, and forgive……and the most important part is that if you feel the lack of friendship or love in your life the best way to change is…….to be willing to change. Remember you have to want to change, and only then will you be willing to change. God said what ever you give thus will I return unto you 100 fold!! What you sow … so shall you reap…..you my friend, you can plant the seed of forgiveness in your heart today and watch how your life changes. You will be impressed, and amazed at how it will give new meaning to your life as you watch your stress levels go down, because they will, and your life will have so much more color and beauty and you will see the great magnitude of Gods glorious abundance that he has promised us….. don’t think about it…… KNOW IT…..