CRITICISM CAN BE GOOD FOR YOU

Even the most well-intentioned person faces criticism. Consider these tips for managing criticism:

Be honest with yourself. Accept the fact that in you there may be faults that are open to censure. If you keep humble, criticism need not jar you.
Invite criticism from your friends. If you do this, when it comes from your enemies you will be broken in. Practice makes perfict.
Even the most bitter criticism can make you better, if you will let it. When you burn with anger you may destroy the passport to your own improvement.
Some criticism should be ignored. This is especially true if it is prompted by false motives. Don't let unhappy people hold the key to your happiness.
Keep the criticism in its right proportion. Everybody hasn't heard. Lots of people don't care. One bad word doesn't cancel out what good there is in you.
Let criticism make you more kindly. When you are criticized, remind yourself that you have criticized too. Is this criticism a boomerang that started in your own heart?
Pray for your critic. It will not only improve him, it will neutralize your bitterness. Allowed to flow freely, hate can destroy your health and steal your happiness.
Check this criticism against the Master Critic. What does God tell you? Away at the center of your soul, how does it look there?
When you have checked to be sure you are right, go ahead. In quiet confidence, finish the thing you have started. The promises of God are to those who endure.

From How to Make People Really Feel Loved...and Other Life-Giving Observations by Charles W. Shedd, copyright (c) 1996. Used by permission of Vine Books, an imprint of Servant Publications, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1-800-458-8505.

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