Judge not.

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.  Romans 2:1 (NIV)

Funny how it works, I read scripture yesterday about judging others.  And I thought to myself, oh, yeah, I know I'm not supposed to judge others and I don't really do that.  Not that much.  Well, I try not to.

And then...while I was grocery shopping on my lunch hour, I caught myself doing that very thing that I don't really think I do...two times, at least that is all I can remember.  In one hour.

The first episode:  I saw someone in the store that had declined to help me with something because they were just "too busy today."  So I pushed my cart past this person at blazing speeds because I only have an hour, thinking to myself, "Oh, they are so much busier than I am?  And here I am on my lunch hour trying to get all this stuff together...blah, blah, blah."  Snap.  There it was.  Instantly, I was convicted.

It doesn't matter what they were doing.  It should be of no concern to me.  I have no idea what they were doing before or what they were going to do after their own grocery shopping.  I have no idea what is going on in their lives and what guidelines they have set for themselves so as not to be overloaded.  And really, if I'm feeling overloaded, that is my own fault.  I have the power to say no to things.  I just struggle with it.

Round two: I load up my groceries and head back to work.  Yesterday was the day it was so cruddy out after a very beautiful Tuesday.  As I am passing through downtown, I see two adults walking down the sidewalk with two small children tagging along behind.  I'm guessing the kids are maybe in the four-year-old range.  They do not have coats on.  It is pretty chilly.  Instantly, I say to myself, "Good grief, what is wrong with people?  Get coats on those kids!"  And almost immediately I realized what I had done and started laughing.

Who do I think I am fooling?  This was another perfect example of me passing judgment on others. Immediately, memories from the past come to my mind, such as, Madolyn wearing a sombrero and plastic dress-up high heels to the mall; heading away for the weekend with my kids and discovering two hours from home that my son didn't bring any shoes (not one pair) with him; arriving at a rodeo with same son and realizing he didn't have on any pants (only a shirt, undies and cowboy boots).  What were people thinking of me during these prime displays of awesome parenting?

Good heavens, in a matter of about 55 minutes, I had caught myself doing this thing I don't really do two times.  There are 23 other hours in the day, how many more times am I guilty of this?

And I suppose, I could rationalize it to myself and say, well, it wasn't really that bad because I didn't actually convey these thoughts to someone else.  Ha!  Good trick, Satan.  In God's eye, it's all the same.  What a great reminder to me that I should never let myself believe I am without this sin or that one.  It doesn't matter that I didn't blast someone on Facebook publicly because they didn't have coats for their kids, or text a friend and tell them this or that.  I had the thoughts.  It is no different.

Note to self:  "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."   Matthew 7:1 (NIV)