Holy Grit — Handling Criticism with Humility - Thursday
Today’s Verse
Proverbs 15:32
If you reject discipline, you only harm yourself; but if you listen to correction, you grow in understanding. (NLT)
One of my favorite pastimes is reading comments on controversial social media posts. There are almost always two extremes on every post. Half of the comments support the author 100% with nothing but praise. The other half are appalled at everything the author has ever done. But the real entertainment comes when those two groups of people aim at each other. To this day, I’m not sure what either group expects to accomplish, but it’s entertaining to me. (If you want a really good time, find some posts on flat earth, grab some popcorn, and start reading.)
Social media has enabled us as a society to filter out the negative comments. The “algorithm” surrounds us with people who agree with us. Because of that, we begin to assume that we’re right about everything and anyone who disagrees with us is completely and utterly wrong.
It’s not only happening on social media. Just turn on the news, and you’ll see plenty of examples where people should own up to obvious mistakes or apologize for something they did. But it rarely (if ever) happens. So many people only surround themselves with like-minded people.
But the Bible warns us about this. We should encourage criticism and discipline. Without it, how will we learn and grow? If you’ve ever been on an athletic team, it’s the coach’s job to criticize you. He does that so you can correct mistakes and grow. Teachers teach and give grades to show you what is wrong so that you can learn the correct answers.
Criticism is rarely fun, but it is always valuable. Welcome it, even if it hurts.
REFLECTION
Take an inventory of the people who speak into your life. Are you surrounded by “yes” people? Do you have people in your life who challenge you? If not, you’re probably not growing in the way God wants you to.