Hate and judgement

Before you decide that you hate someone, before you decide that you absolutely cannot stand someone, before you decide to label someone or judge them, before you decide to keep as far away as you can from that person...remember, you don't know them.

I'm not saying that people are excused from hurting you, if they have done that. I'm not excusing anyone from abusing other people in a variety of ways, whether petty or large. I'm not asking you to go be friends with everyone. What I am saying, though, is that there are so many people who are very good at keeping up appearances and at hiding their dark secrets, and you may judge them without really knowing, for example, that that person is struggling with family issues, or that she has a mental disorder, or that he is a victim of abuse. You don't know whether or not what he/she does stems from such a thing, or even something else. You don't know why she's so moody all the time. You don't know why he acts like such a jerk in general to everyone.

You don't know. So why are you jumping to conclusions? Why are you judging?

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Matthew 7:1-5

Dear reader, please at least take a look at yourself before you start hating on other people. Remember that you, too, have faults. You, too, are nowhere near God's standard of perfection. Remember that He does not require anyone to be perfect, but remember too that as you go around making assumptions about other people, others are doing the same back to you, wondering why you should assume so much.

If you don't believe in God, the same truth still applies. People will judge you for judging others, and who are you, with all your faults, to be judging to begin with? Do you really see yourself as better than any of the rest of us in your morality, your actions, your ways, you with all your faults and imperfections?

I do not deny that I, too, am guilty of being judgmental. But I recognize that I am not right with people when I judge them. I am doing people, and myself, a huge disservice by judging them. Please realize that every moment you spend hating someone is a moment of your life that you toss away as though that minute of your life were meaningless to you, that it wasn't worth anything. Trust me, those minutes add up, and you'll be wondering at the end of your life what you could have done differently with all of those minutes you wasted.