Forgiveness

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints we have a program set up for all the men. It's called Home Teaching. It assigns two Elders to a companionship and then gives the assignment to the companionship to visit families in the ward each month and teach them a spiritual message. In my personal opinion it is more of an instant support program. It helps everyone in the ward to have friends. Why do these people become friends? Because they are united under a similar case, that of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, as stated before, each month there is a spiritual message shared. The message this month had to do with forgiveness and forgetting. It made me think a lot about grudges and how easy it is to keep them because of pride. At first glance I could not discover any grudges in my own heart. However, upon further reflection of my soul I found that I do harvest some hard feelings. Sad day I know. Now I shall start on a slight tangent but it'll be pulled in no worries. My wife and I watched Brave at the Varsity theater on Friday and walking out of it we met a couple from our ward that had also attended the viewing. I was quite critical of the story of the movie because after watching it I didn't yearn for more. I think the amazing stories are those that leave you wanting, because you want to rewatch it in the hopes to pick up new insights and information. My wife responded to my rantings... oh you and your critique. I realized that I am indeed very much a critic, of entertainment. And of most things in this life. Criticism leads to pride and grudge. These are bad things as we know.

But it's a double edged blade. Criticism with humility can also lead to better products and services. It can lead to making the most out of life and finding the things that you truly enjoy. Criticism can help you define yourself and understand where your path is leading and how to improve. So how do we maintain that proper amount of criticism and keep our humility? I'm not expert in this field nor do I pretend to be, but here is a suggestion that I have recently realized. I do not think that we should criticize others as people but that we can condemn their actions. In fact, it would be very smart not to entrust a robber with your money. But yet people can change, by feeling unconditional love. So I would say that we should find things about entertainment that we do not like or we thought we could improve. That helps us realize, oh, I don't like this. That leads to some self discovery with the ancient Sophicles, "Know Thyself." When we realize why we do or do not like something we can figure out ways to change ourselves. Perhaps what we do not like is something inherently evil or bad and would deserve condemnation and no respect. In which cases we can know for ourselves never to do or create such things. On the other hands maybe we don't like something because we don't appreciate it. I believe that most the talent in this life comes from constant progression in that field or talent. It makes me critical of what others do because I always think in my mind, "It's just because they spent a whole lot of time working on that talent." But does that mean I would have the guts to spend that much time on something?

I feel my thoughts starting to ramble. The point is, be a critique so that you can learn how to become better but do not let that become evil within you. Criticism is not about competition. It's about constant improvement. Expressing your criticism to someone else is a different matter entirely.