Judging

Matthew 7:1-3
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Have you judged anyone yet today? I say “yet” because likely we all have or will say something “judgy” about someone sometime during the day. The target of our judging could be someone we have talked to or have seen on television or read about in the paper. We are pretty good at judging others, meaning that we do it often—too often, I’m afraid. It’s really rather easy. We do it by pointing out something that we decide is not “up to our standards” and criticize someone for it or poke fun at it simply because it is not pleasing to us. “Can you believe she dressed that way?” What an abundant amount of material there is to "judge" others. We may judge a person by the way she dresses, talks, where he lives, what they do, what they drive. 

We can do all that easily and most of us are not even elected or paid judges.   At least, in a courtroom I expect a "balanced viewpoint” not just “criticism.” A judge will look at all the sides of the evidence before announcing an opinion. But out of the courtroom, we become "judges" but not necessarily with care or balance or discernment. We go directly to criticism. 

It is wrong to judge; we know that. It's in the Bible; it is part of parents' and teachers' instructions to their kids. So why do we do it? Maybe we don't think we are doing it; maybe we have done it so much that it really doesn't faze us anymore. It can happen even with people you care for and even love. 

Once my son-in-law asked if he could borrow my paints. Without hesitation, I said, “Yes.”  But, also, without hesitation, I thought about the room they were in and how messy it was. (Don’t judge me!) “Yikes!” I thought as I walked to the room with him following me. After a few minutes looking for the paints, I found them but was suffering from severe embarrassment. The next day I attacked the room and got it in perfect order. Now that’s the way it should look every day, I thought to myself as I took a picture of it and sent it to the son-in-law. I added, “Play-like the room looked like this yesterday!” I felt I had to prove myself to him. I didn’t want him to have a bad opinion of my housekeeping skills. Within a very few minutes, I got a text back that said, “I won’t judge you if you won’t judge me!” Wow! That impressed me.

Judging others happens a lot, but judging others is not the only way of judging. I judge myself quite often and I must say I do so rather harshly. I think I ought to be as organized as so-and-so. Or enjoy cooking as much as that person. Or have a perfect marriage like "those" people. When expressing these flaws of mine, a very wise person said these words to me: "Do not judge others' outsides by your insides." Good advice and worth remembering. 

Certainly, all judging, criticizing, or discerning--whatever you call it--happens. We deal with it. We resolve not to be so judgmental. We try to maintain a balanced viewpoint. We fail and we try again. I doubt that judging will stop. It’s been happening for years if not centuries. We need to consider that person we may be ready to judge and remember: 

“Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes. After that, who cares? He’s a mile away and you’ve got his shoes.” Billy Connally

If you choose to walk in my shoes, go ahead. I'll tell you right now--you can even keep the shoes. They probably hurt my feet anyway. (But that’s another story!)

Judging not,
Leta Strother Jones