Do you speak before you think and impart a critical spirit?
A critical spirit is one that has as its passion an effort to tear a person down rather than build up, or edify.
Well, you say, of course I am not trying to tear down that person. You might not be trying but if your heart hosts a critical spirit, it comes through loud and clear.
Test your heart for a critical spirit toward a person you actually hold dear:
1. Do you admire and respect that person's decisions with your words?
2. Do you think you know better in many areas than that person?
3. In your secret superiority, are you trying to change that person?My house has a lot of plants. God grows them. My job is to like them, admire them, and tend to them by building them up in a timely way with water and fertilizer.
It is much the same for this person you claim to hold dear. God grows him or her. Your job is to like her (or him), admire her, and tend to her by building her up in a timely way with gentle words and considerate action.
God can grow my plants without me. I am not God's gift to the plant world. Similarly, God can grow that person you hold dear without you. He has invited you into her circle by blood or circumstance.
Give good gifts.
