Matthew 7:3

I, I, I, I, I, I, I...  wouldn't it be interesting to find out how many times we use the word "I" in a day? I'm not meaning when you tell someone, "I am going to the store." What I mean is when you tell someone, "I would NEVER do something like that. What were they thinking?" We are all guilty of this. One of my favorite Bible verses addresses this:

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

Matthew 7:3

It has become so important to society to judge others. Take the grocery store for example. Pretend you are walking around with your cart and stop on aisle 5 for cereal. There is another woman looking for a type of cereal as well. Her cart is loaded down with cookies, chips, ice cream, some fruit, soft drinks, and she is reaching for the Coco Puff cereal. It doesn't look very healthy at all, but you don't know what she is getting the food for. Maybe her child has a school function that she is donating these things to. Or what about that check out line. The infamous row of magazines! I'm not talking about the ones that say a woman gave birth to an alien... I'm talking about the ones that say "I lost 50 lbs. in 2 months" or the one that says something along the lines of "Look at how much weight these stars have gained!" Do we really need to look at this people and pass judgment on them? No, we don't know them and I certainly wouldn't want them judging me.

I love the analogy in Matthew 7:3 -- sawdust : plank. Think about how small sawdust is... it is basically splinter dust. Now think about how big a plank is... like a 2x4. As a society we have become so obsessed with pointing the finger at others that we turn the blind eye to our own faults. It is much easier to talk smack about others than look seriously at what we are going. As the old saying goes, if you point one finger at someone else you have four pointing back at you.

I judged someone this morning walking to class. I saw someone wearing an outfit and thought, why on earth would she wear something like that? I would never... I stopped myself and realized that I was being judgmental. Maybe the outfit wasn't that great, but the girl felt pretty and comfortable in her outfit. Who was I to judge? I know I have worn some crazy stuff, too.

I guess my whole point is that if we can catch ourselves in the midst of seeing the faults in others, maybe we can begin to consciously make the effort to not judge. Take a look at yourself and think hard about this. Instead of being so quick to judge try to find the positive side of the situation. Looking at someone's "sawdust" is not going to help us fix our "plank."