That Really Hurts…

No one likes to be criticized. We don’t want to be the butt of the joke. We don’t enjoy being the punching bag for others. It hurts when it isn’t true. It really hurts when it is. It might bruise our egos, hurt our feelings and make our faces red, but how much does it harm us.

Words can hurt but only damage us if we let them. And it might even help us.

It seems to me that folks today have much thinner skin than we used to. Maybe it’s because we have so many ways to talk about people, it’s worn down our skin. Maybe, we are a little wimpier since we have had not to suffer as many ‘real’ hardships. Whatever the case, from the athletic field to the boardroom, to the capital, people seem to be much more oversensitive to the words of others.

I wonder if it is because we place too much concern on what others think of us. A lack of self-esteem is shown in how we respond to critics. A wise man listens to a critic and takes to heart the truth and throws away the rest. A fool takes it all and adds it as fuel to the fire of his rage. He is absorbed with it since the words, not the truth behind them is his concern.

Instead of letting other's words rule and define us, let’s only let them improve us. In the end, in won’t matter what anybody said about us unless it was true. I can learn and grow from truth but false claims can slide by.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.

1st Peter 2:12

You can’t keep people from saying things about you, but you can make those people liars. Words may sting but the can only destroy if you let the break the surface. I don’t have to care about it all only what I can use to help me be better.

If criticism can help me stay out of hell than good. But I don’t have to let it make my life here one.

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