Friday, December 12, 2008

Earning the Right to Criticize

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: ~ Ephesians 4:31

Dwight L. Moody, the famous evangelist, was once told by an irate church woman, "Mr. Moody, I don't like the way you do your evangelism."

In reply, Mr. Moody said, "I don't necessarily like all of it either, but it's the best way I know how. Tell me, how do you do it?"

"Oh, I don't," was the reply.

"Well," said Moody, "I like the way I'm doing it better than the way you're not doing it."

It's always easy to know what to do when we don't have to do the job, and very easy to criticize others when we're not doing the work ourselves.

This is from the New Every Morning Pocket Devotions by Nico Bougas, 2006.