October 3, 2011



For One Day

She had a problem common to most of us, she found it easy to be critical of others. After meditating on Romans 14:13 she became aware of the Lord nudging her not to be critical for one day.

She tried to shove it off. But she couldn't get it out of her mind. So she tried to rationalize her critical attitude. After all, aren't we to use the intelligence God gave us to analyze and evaluate---even though the results is not always positive? The nudging continued right through the debate going on in her mind until she finally agreed to give the experiment a try---but just for the one day would stop criticizing.

Through most of the morning she kept wondering what the result would be at. The lunch with her husband and friends was normal except for the unusual silence of one person---her. She had not committed to silence, just to not criticizing. It surprised her to realize how much of her conversation was usually critical and judgmental. She was silent only because she couldn't contribute to the conversation without judging. So, she kept quiet and no one seemed to notice. A sting to the pride as well.

It wasn't until mid-afternoon that something special began to happen. The floodgate of ideas began to open and creative thoughts flowed through in a way she hadn't experienced in a long time.

At day's end she marveled at all that had transpired simply because she refused to entertain a critical attitude. A letter to encourage a friend, insight into praying for a college student, seeking her child's forgiveness, all filtered through her freely because there was no negative thoughts to stop them. She turned her one-day experiment into a lifetime habit.

Catherine Marshall, Retold by Marilyn K. McAuley

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