Day 11

"'Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 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.'"

Matthew 7:1-5

This is actually yesterday's post. I forgot to do it before I went to bed last night...sorry, fans!

I think that this goes hand-in-hand with my first day's post about treating others well. Yet I find myself judging others pretty often. Even when I was thinking about it yesterday, I found myself judging a mom for the way she was ignoring her children, a driver who felt the need to pull around me to run a red light, a man who was dressed differently...and the list goes on. I can't even imagine how often I judge people when I'm not paying attention to it.

Although I know the blame rests heavily on my shoulders, I think we as Americans are at a disadvantage with this command. We are bombarded day after day with shows that tell people they look terrible, news articles about how awful our neighbors are, and tabloids full of gossip and judgement of every minor celebrity they can trash. It's hard to not judge others when we feel like we're constantly being judged ourselves. Maybe if I judge first, the other person won't have time to think about how to trash me.

Yet Jesus tells us that all of our judgement will be returned to us. When I judge someone else, not only am I ignoring my own wrongdoing, I am multiplying it through the act of judging. Instead, I should be focusing on making myself a better person--and then leading by example, through Christ's strength.