Judging and Fearing
We all judge others at times, whether we admit it or not. The Bible and other scripture tells us we should not judge others but it is so much a part of out lives that we find it impossible to completely avoid. Much of our need to judge comes from fear. We fear that we might do something we consider wrong, so we judge those who do. We fear rejection so we judge those who might reject us. We want to believe that we are better than everyone else, or at least as good as the best among us, so we look for reasons to judge them and find them to be just as imperfect as we are, if not more.
We need to overcome these fears and tendencies to judge others. The start of that is to judge ourselves first. Try to honestly ask ourselves why we are judging someone else and if it is because of our own fears, which it usually is, then we need to overcome our fears so we can be less judgmental.
Not judging others doesn’t mean that you accept all behavior of others. It means that you separate the behavior from the person and understand that the person doing wrong things may have a different upbringing than you, different beliefs, or may have some form of mental disorder, so we can oppose the behavior without judging the person. And in those rare cases where you think it is the person who is truly evil, then remind yourself that God will judge him with the infinite wisdom only God has.
I would like to ad that often times people judge those who are not doing anything at all wrong they are just simply doing something different, or are different themselves. For example if someone dresses different or does their hair different or is gay, of a different religion, race, nationality, if they have a handicap, aren't what we consider attractive, overweight, have tattoos, piercings, financial status and so on. None of these are wrong or evil in any way but some people feel that if you are different than them you are wrong. People should embrace diversity and be thankful for the opportunity to see a variety of people. What a boring world it would be if we all looked, dressed, acted and thought alike! I sure wouldn't want to live in a world like that. Diversity is a wonderful thing that makes like interesting and exciting. God would have made all humans identical if that were not true.
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I completely agree and I'm planning to do an article on diversity soon.
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I feel so strongly about this. That we have no right to judge others. Remember "The Golden Rule"? " Do Unto Others As We Would Have Done To Us. Can you imagine how different this world would would be if we all lived by this rule that God told us we should all live by? Even though it is very difficult at times,we have no right to look down on others or think that we are better than they are. I believe we are all here in this life for a specific reason,to learn life lessons that we need to advance spiritually. As Albert Schweitzer said,"Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, Man himself will not find peace. He also said "I don't know what your dastiny will be,but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. I'm not sure, but I believe this next quote is also from him. "We are all here to help this planet and it's inhabitants in any we can to grow and survive." And that can mean so many things, like saving a homeless animal, donating used clothes,donating to charities,being kind to the homeless or anyone less fortunate than us. We have no right to ever look down on anyone who is less fortunate than we are just because we have more material things than they have. It is not the material things we have, it is what we do with our material wealth that matters. We will not be judged by the wealth we accumulate,we will be judged by what we did with that wealth. I believe that kindness and understanding are the two words we should all try to live our lives by. Nothing compares to the feeling you get when you help a homeless animal or a person in need. Giving is definately better than receiving.
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Yes, we should not look down on others because we have more money than they do, or less. Nor should we look down or those less educated or who have chosen a less formal type of education than we did. The same for other species. St. Francis called animals, plants, the sun and the moon his brothers and sisters. We should treat all life as he did. And all life means all things because all of is is life.
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