Thursday, November 8, 2012

Two Ways to Judge

Over the past week or two, I have made a discovery. The more friendly you are, the more people you will become friends with. Genius, right?  Put into such simple words, the concept seems... simple. But sometimes it's much harder to actually act on such an idea.
Somewhere in the past few days, I realized that I'm a lot more judgmental than I think. I fancied myself a pretty open, and accepting person, but now I realize that I was only practicing not being judgmental in one way, but there are two ways we in which we need to become proficient. If people have short-comings, or flaws, if they may do something wrong, or mess up, I find it easy to understand that they're not perfect,  and are just doing the best they can. They may have specific circumstances which cause them to act a certain way. This is the first way, and I consider myself pretty good at not judging others in this regard.. However, there's a second way to judge people negatively, and I didn't even realize I was doing it. If a person was really pretty, or really popular, I would automatically assume that they would never want to talk to me. This judgement assumes that those people I categorized like that would be complete snobs and totally rude, which is not so.
Recently, I have begun to overcome this way of judging people. I am starting to categorize people less. Instead of "pretty people" and "not pretty people", I am able to see the outward and inward beauty of each person I meet. This helps me see that I cannot judge someone's heart based upon their friends or how attractive they seem.
During the past few weeks, I have tried to put aside those judgements and actually talk to the people I was judging. I've gotten to know so many new people, and I'm excited to see where it will lead. My school days have been really exciting and interesting because they're full of new people who I thought I never had a chance being friends with.
This has also led me to realize that I shouldn't assume that people won't like me. It's an unhealthy assumption, and not true. We as individuals can build our confidence in ourselves by developing a closer relationship to Jesus Christ. I know this to be true, for I have seen it work in my own life.

" Judge not, that ye be not judged.
 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
-Matthew 7:1-2