Criticism

Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend…”.

I have been having impromptu discussions with one of our church members about the sermons that I preach on Sundays.  In the first conversation, I criticized myself.  It was a couple of days after the last sermon that I preached and I told them that I felt like I had a really good message but I failed it with a bad delivery.  The member assumed a responsive posture that was uncritical.  Perhaps she did it because, among other things that she is to me, she is one who cares about me and I accept Solomon’s statement that the wounds of a friend are faithful.  Therefore,  paradoxically, I took it as an uncritical critique and it was good.  I ate it up.

Many people do not like criticism because it is, too often, used as an attack to destroy, but I use it as a tool to fix, so I listened to her response.  She talked about the uniqueness of our Church as opposed to other Churches.  She also talked about how congregational size sometimes, fits into the delivery.  As I listened for her critique, I began to formulate fixes.  My point is that criticisms can be a friend, especially when they come from a friend.  It is what we do with criticism after we hear it.

Following the conversation, the next Sunday, I appropriated some her comments along with some of mine in the next sermon and I would love to say that there was a remarkable difference, but that was not the case.  Truthfully, it worked a little bit.  However, I know that if I keep working it, it will keep working because of the word, “faithful”.  The word, “faithful”, means it will work.

The Bible says, “Faithful are wounds of a friend.”