Walk a mile in their shoes…

It’s an oldie but a goodie: before you criticise someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them you are a mile away and you have their shoes…

How quickly do we jump in and criticise? Whether it’s friend or stranger, at home or at work, we can find ourselves putting our opinion in about the way others do things and it’s not always complimentary or encouraging. Or maybe you’ve been at the receiving end of criticism which you think is undeserved or a bit harsh, because you know what led you to making that decision or doing things that way.

Because we don’t know what journey other people are on. We don’t know what unseen scars are hidden under the surface, or what other plates are being spun by that particular person. Unless we have lived that persons life and shared all of their experiences, we shouldn’t judge or criticise.

You know you’re own journey. You know where you’ve been, how you now make better decisions than you used to. You know how you were taught to do things, even if that’s different from how others might do them. And everybody has their own version of that.

Jesus teaches that we shouldn’t judge others. He says the measure we use to judge others will be uses to judge us. This links with forgive and you will be forgiven. So maybe instead of judging and criticising at work or in the coffee shop, or even driving, you could instead have a little more patience, maybe pray a blessing instead of shouting. Maybe you could listen to the why, offer advice or just give a gentle encouragement. You could change someone’s day around, you can start a change in the whole atmosphere of you choose to be different. Let’s face it, you don’t particularly like to be criticised or judged, so be the person who chooses not to do it. You may find the people around you start to copy you.

That’s the way Jesus lived, so that’s the way we can live too. This advent, when the shoppers are getting impatient, when work deadlines are looming and stress is building, try and put yourself in their shoes and build up the people around you instead of tearing them down. Be like Jesus. (But don’t steal someone’s shoes!)