Are judgments a way of life?  Of course they are!  We are continually making judgments throughout our day.  They are so ingrained in us that they become automatic responses in many situations. In actuality, judgments have different faces, describing positive and negative ways that we experience and express them, which leads us into defining judgments.

I am defining judgments into two categories: contemplative judgments and critical judgments.

Contemplative judgments are good and beneficial to our well-being.  They provide a positive way of looking at life, with no negativity.  We see and acknowledge the goodness in the world and all of God’s creation.  We get the idea through some examples of contemplative judgment:

• Waking up in the morning, realizing that we been given another day of life, saying “thank You God for the gift of this day.”

• Walking out of our home, seeing God’s beauty everywhere, spotting a rose, saying “that is a beautiful rose.”

• Entering an Adoration Chapel, looking at Jesus’ presence in the monstrance, saying “I love You Jesus with my whole heart and soul.”

• Seeing one of our children graduate, saying “I’m so proud of her/him.”

These examples are all testaments to viewing God’s world with a contemplative heart.

Critical judgments are thoughts that may be singular in nature, meaning they can occur instantaneously without warning throughout our day, or they may be deeply rooted in our psyche, occurring whenever we encounter specific people or situations.  These judgments can vary from small to very large.  In reality, we can crucify people with our thoughts and words.  Here are some examples of critical judgment:

• We are driving and someone, in an adjacent lane, cuts us off.  We get mad and might shout “that idiot got his license out of a cracker jack box” or maybe even some profanity.

• We see a transgender athlete participating in women’s sports, and say “that disguised male has no right to win a medal in women’s sports, besides he’s offending the God that created him.”

• Watching people on TV news that are rioting on a college campus against Israel and some are being arrested, saying “those rioters are wrong and getting what they deserve.”

• Viewing a group of tents with homeless people in our neighborhood, saying “those people are causing our property values to drop.”

• There’s a neighbor that doesn’t like us due to a past argument, and we say “since they don’t like us, we won’t like them either.”

Note the similarity of the mind set in these critical judgments – we are right and they are wrong!  Sometimes we might seem justified in our judgment, but other times we may be showing bias, anger or a lack of forgiveness.  Regardless of being right or wrong, the bottom line is: what does God expect of us in these different scenarios?  Let’s look at Scripture for the answer.

Matthew 7:1-2 instructs us about judging others, namely, “Stop [critical] judging, that you may not be judged.  For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.”

So if we are called to stop judging, then what can we do instead?  PRAY!!!  Pray for ourselves and the people we want to judge.

It all begins with our conversion, our desire to think and act differently, only possible with God’s help through prayer.  We can’t change people, only God can do that because our prayers for them open the door for God to work in their lives.  No prayers, no change can occur!

Therefore, from this day forward we can develop the habit of praying for every circumstance that tests our judgment.  Over time, this habit can become automatic if we continue using it.

Relating prayer to our critical judgment examples:

• Pray that the driver that made us angry becomes a better driver.
• Pray that the transgender in women’s sports realizes what is fair for the women.
• Pray for peace among people and an end to the Israeli/Hamas conflict.
• Pray that the homeless people find a permanent solution to their being homeless.
• Pray for forgiveness for ourselves and our neighbor, regardless if they choose to forgive.

Note that this change of behavior, on our part, can lead eventually to LOVE for all God’s children, replacing any negativity that we previously felt toward anyone, and greatly pleasing God too.  

‍