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Sunday, March 3, 2013

Human Understanding


Num 12:1-8

 
12 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman; 2 and they said, "Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" And the Lord heard it. 3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men that were on the face of the earth. 4 And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting." And the three of them came out. 5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. 6 And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech; and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

RSV

Third Person: “Did you hear about Sally?” “No” “She lost her job because she got caught with her boss – “I mean, in a very compromising position.” “Really! Does her husband know?” “I heard he left her when he found out.”

Second Person: “Sally, is it true what I hear about why you lost your job? This must be a great burden for you and your family.”

Third Person: “What-a-ya think of our new football coach?” “I heard he got fired from his last job.”

 Second Person: “Hey, coach, welcome to town.”

 Third Person: “That Brittany Spears, is she crazy or what?”
 
Second Person: “Dear Brittany, just a note to tell you that I am praying for you and your family.”

Third Person: “The other day, my friend’s husband asked if I was interested in having sex with him.”

Second Person: “Jim, I am concerned about you. I am afraid you are about to do something very stupid and that it will hurt lots of people we both love.”

Third Person: “I can’t stand my new boss, he is a real jerk.”

Second Person: “Could we talk about your expectation for me and settle a few matters that have been troubling me?”

 
“Lord, guard me lips this day from third person speech. Give me the courage and wisdom to venture into second person conversations.”

 

He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

 

 

A faultfinder is a person with a bad memory who never remembers the good, or a person with a good memory who always remembers the bad.

 

A malignant deity, called Critisism . . . At her right hand sat Ignorance, her father and husband, blind with age; at her left, Pride, her mother, dressing her up in scraps of paper she herself had torn. There was Opinion, her sister, light of foot, hoodwinked, and headstrong, yet giddy and perpetually turning. About her played her children, Noise and Impudence, Dullness and Vanity, Positiveness, Pedantry, and Ill-Manners. The goddess herself had claws like a cat, her head, and ears, and voice resembled those of an ass; her teeth fallen out before, her eyes turned inward, as if she also looked only upon herself; her diet was the overflowing of her own gall.

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)

 

By seeing the tremendous blossoming which a person can experience when surrounded by love and confidence, when he does not feel judged, we can measure the stifling power of other people’s criticism.

Paul Tournier (1898–1986)

 

Criticism leaves you with the flattering unction that you are a superior person. It is impossible to develop the characteristics of a saint and maintain a critical attitude.

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)

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