Light the World-Matthew 7:1
December 26, 2017Pondering Matthew 7:1 today. "Judge not, that ye be not judged."
I think the hang up here is the word judge. What does it mean to judge somebody? I mean, we all need to have judgement in our lives, right? We need to know if something is a good idea or bad idea, should I date this guy or not, is this a sound financial decision or not, that kind of stuff. So when we are told not to judge it makes us kind of grimace a little bit. But what Jesus is talking about here is the kind of judgment where you decide with your very finite knowledge what kind of a person someone is, slap a label on them, stick them in a box, and never let them leave that box.
The worst kind of judgments I've made in my life have been judgments on myself. It's my M.O. to judge myself very harshly. This is brought about about so much damage in my life. I've been doing a lot of work on this for the last few years, like, major reconstruction, and I'm starting to finally see some results. As I've learned tools to stop judging myself so harshly, I've seen some wonderful results. One of the most wonderful side effects has been to be able to stop judging other people so harshly. Because when you can stop throwing yourself in a box and just let you be who you are, and not necessarily the things you've done, you can have compassion for yourself. Then you can have compassion for others. And with compassion comes forgiveness.
Walking around being the jury and judge of everybody in your life is exhausting work. Walking around and being the jury and judge of your own life is even more exhausting.
If you have a tendency to judge yourself or others harshly, I invite you to do what you can to lay that weight down. We already have a perfect judge and a perfect jury, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
Give yourself this gift so you can better#lighttheworld
I think the hang up here is the word judge. What does it mean to judge somebody? I mean, we all need to have judgement in our lives, right? We need to know if something is a good idea or bad idea, should I date this guy or not, is this a sound financial decision or not, that kind of stuff. So when we are told not to judge it makes us kind of grimace a little bit. But what Jesus is talking about here is the kind of judgment where you decide with your very finite knowledge what kind of a person someone is, slap a label on them, stick them in a box, and never let them leave that box.
The worst kind of judgments I've made in my life have been judgments on myself. It's my M.O. to judge myself very harshly. This is brought about about so much damage in my life. I've been doing a lot of work on this for the last few years, like, major reconstruction, and I'm starting to finally see some results. As I've learned tools to stop judging myself so harshly, I've seen some wonderful results. One of the most wonderful side effects has been to be able to stop judging other people so harshly. Because when you can stop throwing yourself in a box and just let you be who you are, and not necessarily the things you've done, you can have compassion for yourself. Then you can have compassion for others. And with compassion comes forgiveness.
Walking around being the jury and judge of everybody in your life is exhausting work. Walking around and being the jury and judge of your own life is even more exhausting.
If you have a tendency to judge yourself or others harshly, I invite you to do what you can to lay that weight down. We already have a perfect judge and a perfect jury, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
Give yourself this gift so you can better#lighttheworld
Posted by Kirsten Beitler. Posted In : A Brush With Life
I am an, artist, teacher, florist, and single mom of four boys, not necessarily in that order depending on the day!
This blog is about things that interest me and. things I can't keep my mouth shut about; art, relationships, friends, kids, teaching, adoption, chickens, divorce, therapy, life...
