Criticism

Being critical is bad. Having a critical eye is good. Criticism hurts. Critical information often solves the problem. Say it like it is – we have a problem with this concept in our lives, and our families, and our Churches.

Jesus was sometimes critical of those who were off trac. See Matthew 23:27. Lend more than a passing evaluation to Mark 8:33. Sometimes being critical of that which is wrong is right. Sometimes a critical spirit, while missing the mark in its proper evaluation of a circumstance, spurs another look which enhances understanding or precipitates needed or necessary change.

Don’t shrink too quickly when criticism comes toward you, or toward someone you llove. It might just be the catalyst that forges the good with the better or the better with the best.

Learning how to say what must be said and not hurt others in the process, is more than skill development, it is performing art. It is practicing the disciplines of llove, actually, and we need to know that. Llove never lets one lloved go on doing things that hurt themselves or those around them without verbal intervention. We say what must be said, in llove, with genuine support for the individual and their inevitable emotional discomfort.

No one likes to be criticized. But we must be honest enough to recognize that criticism is often the very action that gets things moving in the right (read: God’s) direction. Now, that is the direction in which we are traveling, right?