Judging others

Have you ever noticed how every book you read whether it be fiction or nonfiction, secular or Christian, long or short, shapes you in some way...some small changes, some big changes.  It might make you think about things that you never would have considered before. Certain books help you to grow into the person God intended you to be. Some books make you weep and some make you laugh...some even do both. When you read a book you are basically opening your mind and pouring in information whether it be good or bad.


 I hope that I continue to remember this fact throughout my life so that I can become a better person than I am today. 


 I am reading a book about life after the Jewish holocaust. One of the characters in the book is a young female survivor of one of the camps. However, it was not her choice to "be a survivor".  She would have much rather been sent to the hole to be burnt along with her parents and siblings.  See she was chosen, because of her beauty, to be tattooed along with her identification number with the words Nur Fur Offizere. Translated into English these words mean "For Officers Only"...now this "mark" was not used so that she would be treated honorable, it was used because the officers wanted to have her for their pleasure, ONLY.  The whole concept is so degrading and horrifying for me to even think about. I can't even imagine what this poor girl and others like her must of thought of this treatment.  It is just terrible. 


 One of the struggles she goes through in her life after the holocaust is with her own people, so to speak. Jewish women and men  who knew what the tattoo meant. They were full of judgement, full of accusing words and looks. Never caring to ask how she came to have that tattoo. 

 It makes me think of what Job must of felt like in Job 3 when his "friends" came to comfort him but, instead seem to accuse him of some unconfessed sin.  Neither his friends or Job knew about the conversation between Satan and God...they couldn't know. So they were just judging Job on what their little human brains could come up with.  

So many times I have been like these accusers and judged based on my own knowledge or rather,  lack of knowledge. It is hard not to judge...I'm not sure why God has allowed this fault in we humans but, it is evident all around us. Most of us tend to condemn others at some point in our lives. The world is full of judging...we witness it on television, in books we read, in church, in social settings and even within the walls of our own homes. Judgement among young and old alike is just as strong as it has ever been.  .  

I can tell my kids not to judge but, in the next breath I am judging someone.  It is such a challenge...


I hope to remember what the Bible says in Matt.7:1-2  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.