December 10

Written by Bill Grandi on December 10th, 2018

I painfully agree with Tripp this morning:

It is a grace to be willing to listen to and consider criticism. It takes grace to quiet the mind and settle the heart to hear.

It has taken me quite a few years to accept criticism with grace. First, I was pretty arrogant and thought, “Who are they and what gives them the right to criticize me anyway?” That didn’t work very well in church life. Second, as I got older, I realized others had a different viewpoint I needed to listen to. I wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t God’s answer to the church (Never was but sure thought so). It was hard for me to admit that I wasn’t “all that and more” and needed to listen to both good and corrective criticism. I needed to weed out the hurtful, devastating and evil criticism. I needed to be less resistant to changing my attitude and more surrendered to the Father’s desire. A huge-and I mean a huge piece of humble pie was in order. Tripp was right:

Confession is not intuitive for sinners. Humility is not my natural first response. Love of God more than love of self is not a first instinct. The glory of God isn’t naturally the core motivator of what I do and say.

“Father, help me to be humble. Help me to listen. Help me to hear well. Help me not to be so closed off I don’t hear what could be coming from You. Give me grace to hear.”

 

3 Comments so far ↓

  1. Ryan S says:

    In a lot of ways I think maturing has helped me in this battle of humility.

    I am with you Bill, when I was younger, I bucked up against criticism. I pushed back, got defensive, even shifted blame.

    As I have gotten older (and hopefully a little wiser), I have recognized my need to be open to criticism. Now as you said, it requires a bit of discernment. Learning who I should accept advice from and who I should not.

    I still have a lot of room to grow in this area. I may not be as quick to defend, but perhaps I need to be more quick to apply what I am hearing. It is one thing to accept that I need to change something. It is another to actually make an effort to make the change.

    Ryan S.

  2. Yes, Bill, I think our natural inclination when hearing even constructive criticism is to become defensive. That certainly has nothing to do with humility, does it? May God extend His grace to us that we might listen to the wisdom of others.
    Blessings!

  3. floyd samons says:

    Amen to this. Pride doesn’t like to get its toes stepped on. Humility doesn’t feel the pain.

    Good reminder.