Tuesday, March 02, 2004
BRASS TACKS CAN BE SHARP!
Now to continue my thinking on words and their power to bless or destroy. (I took a break from this subject of “words” in my last Post to write about the film, “The Passion of the Christ”.)
This Post, and probably a few more, will deal with criticism. I don’t like criticism. I don’t like to give it and I certainly don’t like to receive it. (Maybe that’s why I don’t have a comment board for this Journal—beside the fact that I don’t think this site offers that option.) I think not many people like to receive criticism.
But there are people who seem to thrive on giving criticism. I know a man of whom his church said, “_ _ _ _ _ has the ‘Gift of Criticism.’” I knew a lady in another church much like that man. She criticized everything and everyone. She would always begin her criticisms with the preface, “I don’t mean to criticize, but……….” and you knew some ugly criticism was coming.
The Bible teaches, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35). That verse seems to appeal most to people who love to give criticism!
This makes me think of another old saying: “Let’s get down to ‘brass tacks’”. A person who says this usually means, “I’m going to let you have it now!” But it is also true that brass tacks can be sharp—especially if you have to sit on them!
I’ve been studying the book of Proverbs in a couple of venues. Proverbs can be a “hard read” if you just read it straight through. It is so constructed that it seems to bounce all over the place. I am teaching some of the principles found in Proverbs at my church on Sunday mornings, rather than a verse-by-verse study. There are so many great themes for practical living in Proverbs if you focus on them rather than each verse, which can seem so disconnected.
And I have been studying the Proverbs this past month in my daily devotions. One of the prominent themes in Proverbs is about our speech, the necessity and kinds of criticism, and the like.
One thing I have learned from studying this topic in Proverbs is that we all must recognize that we need criticism. We usually don’t want it but we need it – at least occasionally. Even the person who invites criticism by saying, “Tell me what you really think!” usually doesn’t mean that literally. Most often what they are really saying, usually without realizing it, is, “Tell me what I want to hear,” or, “Tell me what I already think.”
So, why do we need criticism? Because we are blind to our own faults. We can’t really see ourselves as others see us. That is probably a good thing in some cases. If we could see ourselves as others do, we probably couldn’t stand ourselves! We’d certainly understand why others couldn’t stand us sometimes!
We all practice self-deception and need correction. And much like the typist who can never accurately proofread his or her own typing, we cannot self-correct completely. One of the greatest gifts God can give us is other people who love us enough to help us make those corrections. The Apostles were a part of the foundation of the church, grown men who later distinguished themselves as leaders in the church. Yet they constantly had to be corrected by the Lord. Should we be any different?
I am awfully tired right now. But later I want to Post about the dangers of loveless criticism. Not all criticism is helpful.
Jim
posted by jim 2:53 PM 0 comments
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