Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Life is a garden our thoughts are the seeds, we can plant flowers or we can plant weeds. Unknown
My husband tells me he heard a woman say, “I love a lazy Sunday doing nothing, but I sure hate it when I see my husband doing nothing.” How many of us in our hearts think the same. It might not be the same situation but often we are looking at things in someone else’s life they should fix when if we put our attention on what we should fix in our own lives we can make things better for ourselves.
One of the worst things we develop in life is a critical spirit. A critical spirit is a negative attitude of the heart that seeks to condemn, tear down, and destroy with words. In contrast, constructive criticism involves opinions that are meant to build up. A critical spirit creates blind spots in our hearts and minds causing us to believe we are being constructive when we are condemning, tearing down, and destroying with words.
There are four different ways we can be critical spirits, we can be gossipers, slanderers, judgmental, and complainers. Why do we develop critical spirits? We may be jealous, envious, angry, or hold grudges. We may be full of fear and develop a critical spirit as a way of self-protection. We may feel we are not in control of situations and we use manipulation and shaming in order to gain control.
The only true disability in life is a bad attitude. Scott Hamilton
How can we get rid of this problem that colors everything in our life and can ruin all the good things we have in our lives? It may be horrible to live with someone who is critical but if that someone is us how do we get rid of a critical spirit?
We can focus on what we control in our own lives, we can be grateful for what we have, we can make an effort to build others up, and we can look on the bright side of life.
This is what we can do. We can’t make other people act better, think better, or be better. We can only make ourselves act better, think better, and be better.
It seems to me there is a lot to complain about, but most of what we are hearing being complained about is not anything we have any control over. What if we put our energy into our lives, our families, and what we have direct influence over?
We can notice the small blessings in our lives and be grateful for what we have instead of what we feel is missing. We should think about what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy. This doesn’t mean we should ignore falsehood, injustice, ugliness, or imperfection. But, we should not dwell on the negative.
How do we deal with the realities in life without becoming bitter and critical?
Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world. Annie Lennox
Respect a man, and he will do all the more. John Wooden
Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you. Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself. Richard M. Nixon
Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love,
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