Today’s Daily Bible Daily Verse:   “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” – Luke 6:37-38

And now an entry from the “I’m Only Human” file:

I’m judgmental.  I know I am and I’m working to change but it’s hard!  I’m finding that some parts of me I’m working to change are taking more effort and time than others.

“Who am I to judge,” I ask myself yet when I see multiple people display a frustrating behavior I’d find myself feeling somehow superior because I’d never act that way – until I caught myself doing exactly what I’d just condemned in others actions.

For example:  The rule in here is that you cannot stop and gather to socialize on the walkways of the main compound.  Yet people do it all the time and what’s really annoying is they do it in the middle of the walkway where people are trying to pass.  So a bottleneck occurs which causes people to bump into each other or everything just stops.

I think to myself, “Why can’t these people congregate on the sides of the walkways or better yet, wait until they’re in the rec yard where socializing is encouraged?”

It’s as I think my thought of superiority because I’m not stopping in the middle of traffic to talk that someone stops me to chat and there I am doing the same thing – blocking traffic.

Of course it doesn’t occur to me that I’m guilty of the ‘bad’ behavior until I mediate at the end of the day.  At that time I examine my day fully and stumble through my day of very human actions.  And I swear to curb my judgmental way.

Until the next day.

The worst part of acknowledging my nature is having to admit how like all the other people I encounter I really am.  I want to be better than I am which for a judgmental person equate to thoughts of being better than others – something the Bible warns us not to think and believe.

Sometimes I’ll try to feel  better about myself by saying something like, “I may block traffic but at least I don’t do it daily.” HA!  How self-righteous can I be?!?

So I’m working to become more humble and a whole lot less judgmental.

In Matthew 7:1-2 we’re told, “Do not judge, or you to 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.”

I pray I’m not judged by my ‘perfect’ expectations of others for I would fail miserably.  Instead I pray I am judged by my desire to be closer to ‘perfect.’

How will you be judged?

~jdoe