Judgmentalism
(April 23, 2005)

If there is any one behavior that contributes more to our emotional unrest than any other, it would be the habit of being judgmental. Judgmentalism can start early in our lives. Our parents can show their disapproval of our actions by judging us as being 'stupid', 'irresponsible', 'uncoordinated', 'ugly' or a host of other names. While their anger has a chance to vent, the damage that occurs to the child can last a life-time if not addressed somewhere along the way in the life of the child as they mature. Did your parents call you names while you were growing up?

Sometimes, other siblings engage in belittling of their brothers and sisters. Did your brothers or sisters make fun of you for any reason, and so judge you?

Then there is the ridicule that is sustained at the hands of bullies at school or fellow classmates. Fortunately, bullying is being monitored at school now more than ever. But there are other ways that kids can show their disrespect of other kids in their school, and so these assaults on the self-esteem of kids in school must also be brought to light sooner than later in a child's life so they can get past any pain that these hurtful names may have caused, and continue growing in their character and personality development. Did children your own age pass judgment on you through your school years?

Finally there is the abuse that comes upon a child from people like teachers, club leaders and even church leaders. All of these judgmental statements by esteemed adults can also have a profound impact on how a child views themselves. Did any adults in your life judge you in any way growing up?

Depending on the psychological make-up of the child, will determine how serious an effect these names (or judgments) will have on the child. By now we know that it is the devil that is behind all of these verbal assaults toward the child. And all of these slights on a child's person have just one goal , and that is to get the child to believe these hurtful lies. If Satan can convince them that they actually are what the people in their lives are telling them they are, then it is a slow burn to destruction. Sooner or later the pain of the past will catch up to them they will need to reckon with it. That is when the truth comes in to play. By reading God's Word and understanding the tremendous value God places on each of our lives we can see that with God's favour upon us we can settle into a new way of viewing ourselves, a way that produces love and life, instead of hate and death. But, do most children receive the counselling they need to see things properly, and thus reprogram their view of themselves? No, most of them do not. So what happens? They become judgmental themselves and it compounds their problems. Not only are they subconsciously feeding on the negative image of themselves from past abuse that was heaped upon them, their depression causes them to see everything else in life from a negative point of view. And while what they are seeing in life that is negative may be accurate, them actually verbalizing those judgments sets them up for failure every time. For good reason Jesus taught us not to pass judgment. For by judging others, we too will be judged the same way by God. Nothing is ever gained by judging others and certainly not judging ourselves as depressed people tend to do so easily. Why not take an inventory of your every day speech and see if judgmentalism is something you need to uproot out of your vocabulary? More than likely you will be half way toward perfect peace when you've been able to tame your tongue and speak good rather than evil. The Bible says that we eat of the fruit of our lips. Do you like what you are 'tasting'?