Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Critical Critics

Today's prompt is taken from a book I own. "Great Quotes From Great Leaders", published by Motorola, my employer. This one is from Norman Vincent Peale. "The trouble with most of us, is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism." Do you feel this is a valid statement? Tell us why you feel the way you do.

reference by Bing from a dictionary:

NOUN
1. the expression of disapproval of someone or something based on perceived faults or mistakes.
"he received a lot of criticism" · [more]
Synonyms:
censure · reproval · condemnation · denunciation · disapproval · [more]
2. the analysis and judgment of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work.
"alternative methods of criticism supported by well-developed literary theories"
synonyms:
evaluation · assessment · examination · appreciation · appraisal · analysis · [more]
3. the scholarly investigation of literary or historical texts to determine their origin or intended form.

Most of the time we don't argue with 2 and 3. As for the first one the expression of disapproval by anyone about anyone can be the basis for error or the basis for a warning, or the basis for evaluation of their actions. Read the definition of one and two compare the Synonyms.

Fictional story:

A 40 something man in a grubby shirt, blue jeans, and worn sneakers sees a 4 or 5 year old child in the middle of the street. A car is coming down the street. The man runs out grabs up the scared child and carries it back to the side of the street he came from. The child is screaming mommy, mommy. The man puts the child down and tries to question the child about where their home is. In the meantime a neighbor calls the parents house tells them their child is being abducted and the police are called. Criticism is a lot like mistaken evaluation of something you don't have full evaluation of yet. What if the child really was being abducted?

Often we need to get the bottom of who, what, where, why, and how. Unfortunately, if the facts are hidden you may never know the validity of the criticism. The trick is to uncover the facts. To know what questions to ask. To be straight forward and get to know your subject a little. Don't think a simple answer will reveal all the facts.

I had a mathematics teacher in college who said, "Math is complicated. You can't think about something in such a simplistic way to get the right answer." We were doing story problems.

Our minds gravitate to the simple answer because we are not taught to evaluate the small facts. Criticism usually involves people and relationships.

Norman Vincent Peale tried to make this simple? Salvation isn't a simple thing. Christians should not try to save people only Christ can do that. Our sins are covered by the blood of the Christ who suffered in our place. There is only one true scapegoat. Jesus.

Sin continues to be a problem in all Christians only now they battle it with knowledge and understanding. Sometimes they have people near to aid them sometimes not. Always, Christ intervenes in some way.

I'm pretty sure if you refuse understanding to someone who is saved; you are now practicing your own sinful nature. You can't force salvation onto people. It has to be a real change inside of them. You have to see the result. You have to hear about the difference they know that is affecting them. They will have a verbal witness.

A little Fictional story to end my opinion:

Yes your honor. The neighbor kept telling me everything I did is wrong and I'm a very bad person.

I told him to shut up and he wouldn't so I threw my hatchet at him. But, don't worry, I'm a Christian so it's ok. Yes sir. I'm surprised the blade hit him right between the eyes too. I was aiming for his heart.


p.s. = I can't remember his name right now. However, there was a famous Christian who wrote a lot of books about scripture and Christian subjects. Then, one day he had a face to face confrontation with Christ. He stated this fact, that he wished he hadn't written all those opinion books about Christianity and he never published another book. I read this in a book I was reading about Catholic Church history.

May God's Blessing Abide With You.