The Pain In Criticism

It's amazing how peoples words can build us up or tear us down. I woke up this morning in very good spirits full of joy and praise. But later I found a message from a former friend on facebook telling me I haven't changed one bit. I'm not a man of God and I have traded one addiction for another. Telling me I also need to grow up because I wouldn't add them to my friends list. Well, she was right about one thing. My former addictions to bad thoughts and substances have changed to faith filled thoughts and surrounding my self with God, His people and His Word. But her words cut deep, making me feel guilty and ashamed. It took some coaxing from Suzy to build me back up again. I toyed with the thought of leaving her another message but that would only bring me down to her level and that's not who I am anymore. All this has truly shown me why I left my old friends (by left I don't mean run away from like she said). They don't care like they say they care and they criticize my way of life and judge me in their hearts because of my actions. They continually tell me how they think that I think I'm better than them because I go to church. Peoples criticism is never helpful but hurtful. Criticism is usually coming from a judging heart. At least that's how I view it. Not that I'm always right. =) So from now on I think I will try and be careful myself in how I use my words. I don't want to hurt people the way I was hurt this morning.