Specks and Planks

Matthew 7:1-5 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

God has been dealing with me a lot about judging others. Looking at all the things other people are doing wrong and trying to fix them. As if I do not have my own faults and things that I am guilty of.

How arrogant of me to assume that I am better than anyone else because I can so easily see their faults. Christ gave excellent advice to his disciples in Matthew. Make sure that you don't have something to fix before you start 'fixing' other people. You cannot really see to remove the speck from there eye because your vision is blocked by the MASSIVE plank in your own eye.

I always find this picture humorous. I have a 2 by 4 sticking out of my eye and I look at my neighbor and say, hey....would you like some help getting that bit of dust out of yours.

Really the only person or being that can help anyone remove the annoyances or problems in our lives is God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Before we start pointing fingers we need to examine ourselves and see what things we need to fix with us. And in my experience, once I deal with the things inside of me the problems with the other person seem more like a speck, when at first it was a GINORMOUS piece of wood.

Such a beautiful picture of accountability not only for others but for yourself.