Saturday, October 31, 2015

Remove the Plank!

Have you noticed that even toddlers know when someone wrongs them? It is human nature to notice when someone else “steals our toy” and then we throw a tantrum, but when we want something we have no problems grabbing a toy from the other kid. Because selfishness is human nature, it comes far easier to overlook when we do something wrong but notice immediately when someone else does something wrong.

If we are not careful, this attitude can carry over into adulthood. This is characterized by pointing out everyone else’s flaws yet failing to recognize our own. I have noticed over time that the ones who are so busy pointing out how everyone around them is prideful, for example, are the ones who think the world revolves around THEM and they are just angry because someone else is getting recognition for something, which takes the spotlight off of THEM.

Matthew 7:5 states, “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.” There are few things worse than when someone close to you points out with great magnitude how (they thought you did something) wrong but then cannot admit when they are wrong.

Whenever somebody says or does something out of line, it is sometimes far more effective to pray for them instead of obsessing over the speck in their eye. For one thing, intensions can be mistaken and what we perceive is far different than the intensions they had. It is also possible that maybe there is some jealousy at play on our part, so we just need to keep quiet. There are other times, however, when it is in everyone’s best interest to point out something that was said or done wrong and should be made right.

Soon after I got divorced, a co-worker told me very firmly and with an attitude of self-righteousness, “You sinned because you got divorced!” She did not know the whole story or the fact that an unfaithful, abusive spouse who no longer wanted me but anyone else younger and prettier was the main reason behind the divorce. She jumped to conclusions. Several years later, we had come across each other’s path again and started catching up with each other’s lives when she brought up the fact that her husband had just about crossed that line of unfaithfulness and how she said to him, “Oh, no you don’t! I am out of here if you go there!” Hmmm…I found it ironic that when she was placed in a similar situation, she was more than ready to give her husband the boot, even though a few years earlier she had faulted me for getting out of a marriage where that line had already been crossed!

I am very careful whenever I pray for someone else’s issue (whether it be with pride, not picking up the slack at work, etc.) because I too have areas that need improvement. When I do pray for the Holy Spirit’s conviction over someone, I am also deliberate about asking for the Holy Spirit to convict me when I do something I should not do too or if I were ever do the same thing, because not a single one of us is immune from doing something that we hate to see other people do. We are just as guilty although our wrongdoings are just in different areas. This was not something that came easily or automatic but it was something I had to learn how to do deliberately and then it became second-nature.

Just remember, when we are pointing one finger at someone else, four fingers are pointing back at ourselves. J

2 comments:

  1. Good post. Yes it takes time and lots of practice not to condemn people. We must remember that we too have issues and sometimes do wrong things. Thank God for grace and mercy.

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  2. So true. We are often fast to criticize someone else or accusing them of something... but we don't see what we are doing in return. And often it is the same thing we are reproaching others to do.

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