Dealing With Critics
I love this little story in DL Moody's biography. The writer says “an overzealous critic who was not an overactive worker took Mr. Moody to task for his defects in speech in the early days. ‘You shouldn't speak in public,’ he said. ‘You make too many mistakes in grammar.’ Moody replied, ‘I know I make mistakes and I lack a great many things, but I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. But look here, friend, you've got grammar enough. What are you doing with it for Jesus?’”.
Moody's Challenge: Turn Criticism into Action for God
And that made me giggle a bit. This man took him on. And Moody said “I understand, I'm working on it. But if you're so good at it, what are you doing for Jesus with the skills you’ve have?” I thought that was clever.
More than that, I thought it was profound. Number one, if you've got defects and faults that shouldn't stop you from doing good work for God. Sure you're not going to do it perfectly, but do it for God anyway. And if you're criticizing others, maybe sitting in the pews, criticizing the singers and musicians and the preachers and everything all around you, what are you going to do about it?
You've got an ability yourself. Are you going to use it for good? Are you going to take your ability and stop criticizing others, but do what you can do?
Moody's Humility: Embracing Criticism and Self-Improvement
There's another occasion where Moody was criticized by somebody because of his speech, and so Mr. Moody went and sat with him and thanked him for pointing them out and asked the person to lead a prayer with him, to ask God to help him improve.
That was a humble thing to do. Do you take criticism the way Moody did? Those two stories gave me much to think about, and maybe they will do the same for you. Don't let your critics get you down and don't be too big of a critic. Go on with your faults; and if you're a critical type, quit it and start doing instead of criticizing.
