judge not.

Lest ye be judged.

I consider myself to be a pretty judgemental person, something I am definitely moving away from more and more, the older I get, but judgemental nonetheless. I chalk this character flaw up to the few Sundays a year I visited my grandmother's Baptist church and the fact that my church growing up was right across the street from an incredibly large Baptist church. I'm not serious, but I am. I mean, I can't blame my character flaw on my sinful flesh, can I? No, I must blame someone, or something else, rather.

Lately, more and more, I've been hearing people claim, "I'm not judging you," or the classic, "I don't judge people." This first struck a not so melodious chord with me while watching 17 Kids and Counting (the story of the morally right, hairfully wrong Duggar clan in Arkansas). One of the elder Duggar children was claiming that she did not judge her older, not a bit wiser, cousin Amy because she wore shorts and had regularly cut hair. Oh, that little Duggar girl is such a liar.

When someone has to make the claim, I'm not judging you, they were/are most definitely judging you. I mean, at least in my case that's true. If I tell you I'm not judging you, I'm always and I do mean, always, judging you.

I've gotten better about this though. How so? First off, rarely do I tell people this anymore. Meaning, if I am judging you, I try to do it silently. And second, back in the day, if someone told me something about themselves that I found appalling, I would completely cast them out of my life. I no longer do that. It's true. I find a number of my friends completely appalling and unworthy of grace, but I'm not judging them.

All of this being said: Beware of those who judge not, lest they are judging ye more than others.