One of the things we were taught well as JW's was how to be judgemental.
Do You Judge?
By Jan Tincher
Do you find yourself judging people when they do something *you* don't think is right? When they act a way that *you* don't consider to be the best way to act? When they say something *you* don't think should be said?
When you see someone walking down the street and they are someone you don't think you'd like to know, what's going through your mind? Are you judging them? Sure. We all do that to a certain extent.
Are we happy we judge? No. It's not right to put people down, if only in our minds.
To judge means you are making someone better than you or someone worse than you. Either way, someone gets put up and put down. That's not how life should be.
However, it is sometimes difficult not to judge, isn't it? All our lives we've been taught to think, rightly or wrongly, about what we or someone else is doing. Always, it seemed, there was a winner and a loser.
BUT, and it's a big but, that's not the way life should be. You never come out ahead when you put someone down. Not where it counts, anyway.
If you want to live the good life, and if you want to be at peace in a way that says you've arrived where you were headed, harm to no one, you know it can't happen if you continually judge people -- and someone comes out lacking. The minute you judge, you take a little bit of goodness away from yourself.
But it's a habit, what can I do?
Here's what you can do about it. Imagine the scenario where you have just judged someone. Now, imagine that someone has put a mirror to your face and you are seeing your face with your nose in the air. Not a very good picture, is it?
Now, someone is in front of you that you admire so much you just wish you were exactly like them. Someone puts a mirror up to your face. There you are, full of envy. Not a very good picture, is it?
Now, someone is in front of you that you hate. Someone puts a mirror up to your face. There you are, full of hatred. Not a very good picture, is it?
Do you think that if whenever you judged someone, everyone in the whole world would know what you are thinking -- just as you did when you saw your face in the mirror -- you would think twice about judging someone? I think so, too. Why not realize what you are doing ahead of time and DON'T DO IT? Give that other person a chance. You just might make some great new friends that way, and would that be terrific?
JanG
CAIC Website: http://caic.org.au/zjws.htm
Personal Webpage: http://uq.net.au/~zzjgroen/