Monday, April 12, 2010
Developing Good Judgment and Not Judging Others
Matt 7:1 was a real head-scratcher in my seminary class. The injunction to "judge not" was applied all over the place: hate the sin, love the sinner; making friends; sharing the gospel...it seemed like it was difficult to make judgments required to keep us safe from sin and danger without violating the Savior's command. However, the Lord doesn't give us difficult commandments without elaborating on the point. Webster's defines "judging" as, "to discern, to distinguish, to form an opinion, to compare facts and ideas, and perceive their agreement or disagreement, and thus distinguish truth from falsehood." This doesn't say anything about comparing ourselves to others in order to boost our ego. It doesn't say anything about value. Judgment, in its purest form, is about trying to discern the truth--a noble endeavor we ought to all be engaged in! In our first talk from the new conference, Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer teacher us about Developing Good Judgment, and Not Judging Others. He gives us four valuable tools in discerning truth and judging righteously in a confusing world. Hope you enjoy it!
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I love the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and am definately going to read it again. Thanks for posting this article. Sometimes it's hard to know when I'm being judgemental vs. using good judgement. I was only able to hear part of this talk during conference so it's nice to read it and recieve the entire message.
ReplyDeleteThe ultimate teacher for all of us was as written in the talk, Jesus. The one who taught us to love everyone, to have compassion and turn the other cheek and yet he was judged by so many, because of their ignorance. Imagine if we were all a little more like Jesus. Not so judgemental of others, I wonder what it would be like to walk in his shoes. This world would certainly be a different place.
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