I know my way around the New Testament of the Bible a little bit, but am not close to being a Bible scholar. A message I remember from my childhood is about not judging others. It comes from the book of Matthew, chapter 7, verses 1-2. Jesus is giving his sermon on the mount and says:
“Do not judge, or you 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.”
That seems pretty straight forward. God will judge me if I judge others, and that may be so. However, I have found another application to this verse. I realized early in my adulthood that the harder I am on others, the harder I am on myself. Conversely the more accepting I am of others, the kinder I am to myself.
Lee Jampolsky explains it well in his book Smile for No Good Reason. He says, “It is impossible to be judgmental of other people and not open yourself up to self-doubt, or feel an increased need to defend yourself. Similarly, it is impossible to extend love and acceptance to other people and not feel good about yourself. Simply put: If you want to build your self-esteem, offer acceptance.”
Even the stoics addressed judging. Seneca stated:
“When philosophy is wielded with arrogance and stubbornly, it is the cause for the ruin of many. Let philosophy scrape off your own faults, rather than be a way to rail against the faults of others.”
I have certainly jumped into the deep end of the fault finding pool many times. I don’t ever remember a time when it went well and improved my life. When I’m tempted be judgmental I remind myself of the final scene in the movie War Games. In the movie Matthew Broderick’s character hacks into a super computer to play games. He doesn’t realize it belongs to the defense department and asks to play thermal nuclear war. The computer thinks an actual war is about to start. The way to stop the computer is to teach it that thermal nuclear war, like judging, is a no win scenario. It finally understands, “The only winning move is not to play.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpmGXeAtWUw
May you have enough today, one moment at a time.
THIS HELPED ME 