The late Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, once commented, “Criticism is easy, achievement is difficult.”  Criticism is like a hot iron – although useful in smoothing out wrinkles, it must be handed over carefully with forethought and received methodically with caution.  Hence, both the one offering the criticism and the one being criticized must give careful attention that the heat is applied to the issue and not to the person.  This is no small feat!

Almost everyone has been on the receiving end of criticism.  We cannot afford to ignore it but we also must not become preoccupied with it.  Rather than allowing criticism to produce a root of bitterness within us, we must examine it, draw from it what wisdom we can, and move on with our duties.  Only a person with an undaunted ego and unhealthy self-confidence would presume that all his ways were without room for improvement.  E. Stanley Jones once said, “My critics are the unpaid guardians of my soul.”  When injurious things are said against us, prudence demands that we consider the quality of the messenger, reflect upon whatever truth is in the words, and respond to truth.  As pain alarms our bodies of a malfunction so can criticism alert our minds to a much-needed remedy.

As important as it is for us to learn to properly process criticism, it is equally important that we learn how and when to give criticism.  The voice of criticism must earn its way before it has a right to be heard.  In other words, in areas where we have not labored and invested our study, time or talent, we have not merited the platform from which to speak.  If we have no vested interest, our words can have no weightiness.  If a penny will buy our thoughts, then our wisdom is not even worth two cents.

Those who nurture an area are selective as to whom they allow access, acting as guardians over their fields of endeavor.  A cool bystander, a lazy drifter, a causal observer, a shortsighted advisor, a morally weak judge: these are without the credentials in the arena of guidance.  Good judgment can never be gained from a distance or before one has taken the time to research all the pertinent facts.  Partial data will not produce impartial judgment and fragmented knowledge will not manifest true understanding.  Therefore, before we send the jury out, we must be sure we have heard all the witnesses.

Because many precious relationships have been marred or destroyed by the power of criticism, we all must live responsibly and cautiously in this area.  When we have prematurely or ill advisedly criticized, an apology can help to mend fences.  Where we have been condemned, we can profit where profit is possible while forgiving those who acted against us in arrogance or ignorance.  But, most importantly, we can all become guardians of our own words, criticizing only in the manner in which we would want to be criticized.