There’s a verse in the Bible that talks about judging ourselves before daring to judge anyone else. The analogy used is to take the log out of your own eye before attempting to take the speck out of someone else’s eye. Unfortunately, it’s so easy to talk about others and make assumptions about their actions or their lifestyles and judge them first before taking the time to get to know them including why they have made the decisions they’ve made and what they’ve been through to get there. You honestly can’t say, “If I was in that situation, I would never have reacted that way,” OR “I don’t respect them because I wouldn’t do that.” Frankly, you don’t know how you’d react until you’ve been in their situation. I’ve been guilty lately of making some assumptions about others and judging them before taking the log out of my own eye. Coming from someone who has been judged harshly and had many assumptions made about me during difficult times in my life on this tiny atoll, I should be the last person to do that to others. It hurts, and there’s nothing helpful about it. So tonight, I ask forgiveness from all those I have judged harshly or acted in a less than loving manner to over the years, and I challenge all of you to do the same: to look at yourself first and take the logs out, so you can see others clearly and love them because of their uniqueness and life experiences not judge them for what some people might view as flaws.
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