Criticism

I receive an email from a friend today of a daily devotion, and it spoke of Godly response to criticism using Proverbs 15:31-33. The first thing the author states is no one like criticism…lol…Yeah, he is right. However, I have long accepted it to be part of God’s refining process in order to develop us into the person, He designed us to be. As well as it comes from the learned and the unlearned, the expected and the unexpected, and also, from those look up to me…smiling… My issue, pet peeve is not the criticism. It is today and always been (once I understood) the timeliness of the delivery, the intent of the person providing it because they provide the stinger, not the words.

What I have come to understand is this, things look the same but they are not. However, we emotional are beings who have ravished on the plate of protecting, not showing weakness, or fear of being wrong, we miss the importance of proper usage of criticism. We tend to run from it when it involves someone we love, until we want to make a point to them about something. Yet, when it is someone we don’t care about, we use it to hurt them, to show them up, or to show our superiority. Finally, we use it to show how smart or gifted we are.If you have prove it, will it matter to the person who does not believe... I think, Christ taught us that...wink

God never meant for this to be the case. Reproof yes, but not intentional hurt. We have once again taken what God meant for good, and used it far too many times, for evil. We broken, lost, and confused lot are we, let our man’s logic supersedes God divine order. Then we wonder why does it hurt so bad to hear, to endure, to accept, or to deliver. We have lost the true intent of the reproof. See it is like this, me asking you to do what I want you to do, and me seeking the best for you. They may look the same, but they are not the same. One desires your best for you, while the other does not. Or when we have to hurt to help, rather than hurt for destruction. We have to say no, because we know it is the best, but it hurts the receiver.Yes, all things work together but no one likes to be beat up everyday, at every encounter with us...

The same is correct of criticism. Constructive criticism and condemning criticism are clothed in the same, but their intent is as different as Godly love and man’s.  As Christian, we got to do better because iron sharpening iron but it also give off sparks. Who wants to constantly live like that, not me! When will we learn to love, with the love we were commissioned to give; you just have to live to get it. Hold a trust that is unshakable because of its depths, and a hope which silence any spectators wondering, if it is real. Then, and only then shall we see criticism in it true form, and accept the reproof with an attentive ear, an open heart, and silence mouth….

For is this not true – John 3:17- For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (NIV).. So should we, as Christians.. just sayin’… J