You would have to be dead, not to have ever encountered criticism.   There is no lacking of criticism, now, or ever.

People have a way of  ‘belittling, and maligning each other, without realizing they are doing it.   It is so common in some that,  you can’t help but notice  their bitterness.

People of all  ages ridicule each other, in all facets of living.   From work, to home to play-ground.   The compassion that is needed becomes lost when understanding is lost.   The two seem to go hand in hand.

However, encountering criticism, it is understood it happens.   Yet, what of one who grows up with criticism?    Will this reduce the character of the child, and affect his demeanor throughout his life?

Criticism, is so harsh to the heart that the person often rises into anger, and hostility.   Yet, again it can bring one to tears, depending on the occurance of the  event.   (What was said, who said it, and how it came to be, all factor in.)

When we choose to love one another, we choose to impress within our hearts that we care as deeply about another as we do ourselves.   Difficult?   Perhaps!  Yet, the defining factor here is the ‘common denominator’ to living.   Jesus is the perfect one.   He is the teacher, and He instructs.   Without Him, we can not understand the harshness of who we are, and how we present ourselves to others.   We put on the ‘holier than thou’ attitude, and are convinced we are already ‘perfect’!

Unfortunately, this often begins very young, usually in grade school.  It is here that children learn of competition, and rival for recognition.

It can be said, the teacher is good!   The class-room is disciplined and the attention is perfect.   Yet, when children compete, in sports, and tests, and ‘friendship’ the application of encountering the feelings are not usually understood.   It is then the ‘picking’ begins.

Preparing for life is not easy.  It takes daily instruction and far more guidance than what is given.  For children do not understand why!   When they are not taught the reason and given an explanation for how they feel, they become angry.   This is usually directed at another.  Well into adulthood.

Unfortunately people are complacent about the rearing of children.    They put them in the ‘private schools’, send them to the ‘best’ for instruction and guidance, and feel they have done the best, because they ‘spent’ the most!

Children know no difference.   If they are given the best, and they know nothing else, and someone else has less, is there someone there to teach them not to ridicule or persecute, or criticise?    One thing we can be sure of…..prejudice has no color!   It is out-rightly ugly!

So, if you are the richest, or the smartest, or the prettiest, or the most popular, or the most athletic, or the most famous, who-ever, or what-ever your station in life is, know this…we are all equal in the eyes of God!   God Our Father will and does look at our hearts.   If we are critical, brutal, hateful, and unkind to each other, we are far from the grace of God!   For God is love!   Pure Love!   So if you are hating, holding a grudge, or gossiping, and lying, then there is indeed work to be done.

For if we all stood before the throne of God, and all He saw was each heart, what would He see of yours?   Would you feel proud that you had loved so completely, or ashamed that you had hated so intensely?

Where were you when they crucified  My Lord?   Do you know of His wounds, His sorrows, His tears, His Abandonment, Betrayal, and loneliness?

For it is through Him that all things come into perspective.    Once you know Him, you will have the epiphany your soul has been thirsting for.

Book of Proverbs: Chapter 4 verses 1-4  “Wisdom: The Supreme Guide of Men

1) “Hear , o children, a father’s instruction, be attentive, that you may gain understanding!   2)Yes, excellent advice I give you; my teaching do not forsake.  3 )When I was my fathers child, frail, yet the darling of my mother, 4) He taught me, and  said to me: ‘Let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commands that you may live!'”