Judging others

We judge others by their actions; we judge ourselves by our intentions. We need to give others the benefit of the doubt. It’s easy to assume we know why people do what they do. We may be very wrong in our assessment; we don’t know their motives and we’re prone to misinterpret what we’ve heard (or think we've heard). Until we check things out, it might be best for us to say nothing, to reserve our judgment. A lot of times our problem is communication, which is going beyond what is said to what is meant. By not listening carefully, we may come to wrong conclusions over what people say and do. Thankfully, God forgives us because Jesus took the punishment we deserve. When we stand before the Almighty Judge we shouldn't want our “just deserts”; we should want mercy!