If you’ve felt the sting of the critic’s mean words it’s natural to want to avoid future attacks.

And it’s really easy to avoid criticism.

Simply do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
In short, waste your life and no one will criticize you.
(Except perhaps your parents because they love you enough to tell you you’re wasting your life.)

If you could live you whole life and do nothing but good you still could not avoid criticism.
One man did that and they nailed him to a cross three years after He went public.

Will Rogers said, “I never met a man I didn’t like.”
At first I thought that was an outlandish statement – especially since he knew so many politicians in his day. 

But years later it dawned on me what he was saying.

It makes sense if you put the emphasis on “met”.
I never met a man I didn’t like.

The more we know folks the easier it is to love them.
Most families have a crazy aunt or curmudgeon of an uncle.
But they are family – they’re your crazy aunt or cranky uncle – so you love them in spite of themselves.

It’s so easy to criticize folks we don’t know, that we see on TV or read a blog by or who cut us off on the freeway or who we work with or ….

Perhaps that’s why Jesus could truly love all people. He truly had “met” them. He knew all things about them.
(I suppose being God also helped.) 
But perhaps if I would take more time to get to know people and spend less time running my mouth in judgment I could be a little bit more like Jesus.

What do you think?
Why don’t you leave your thoughts on this below.
After all, I’m pretty sure, after this post, you won’t be critical.  
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Luke 6:32
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.

John 13:35
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”