As my lovely wife has already mentioned our Monday night group did a 2 day fast from criticism. We were inspired by the first fasting reading in the Renovare Spiritual Classics that we are going through.
My experience with it was pretty revealing. The first day was pretty slow at work and not stressful… and I realized how critical I am of myself. I would do something in the ideal way and find myself saying “I’m such an idiot” or “stupid” or something like that. At the end of day one I thought my lesson would be on how I view myself. But then day two came. Day two was a full and stressful day at work. And guess what? Yep, I found myself being horribly critical of everyone around me. I reflected on it quite a bit that whole day and took a nice nighttime walk and discussed it with God. I realized just how critical of a person I am, and how it is a defense mechanism of sorts. It keeps me from having to be vulnerable. I thought about the people I know who are not critical of others and how they really are great at befriending all kinds of people. I want to be one of those people…
Day two was a lot harder than day one and Alicia joked that she will only do it again for one day. Instead of stopping at one day I think I need to press on for more than two days. I desire to deal with the critical spirit that I have and the root issues behind it, not just realize I have it.
I know what you are talking about, day 2 was so much harder. As for being critical on yourself, I think it is something we all do and have to work on. At least I know I do. Also so you know I don’t think you are overly critical, actually I think you are a great guy.
Its a fine line between criticism and discernment. I tend to appreciate critical thinkers.
Yep, it is a fine line… unfortunately for me I have stayed on the criticism side of the line too long. I’m trying to focus on thinking in the positive instead of in the negative… thinking of other solutions instead of just tearing up the ones other people have. That sort of stuff.
And if I had fasted from critical thinking I would not have lasted an hour in my job. It’s one thing to think critically of an idea or about a problem… it’s something else when you apply it to people directly. I am finding that when I let myself be critical of people, I end up tearing people down and being generally mean… that is what I want to get out of my life.
Blessings instead of curses…