Good morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Have you noticed how quickly we tend to leap to judgement?

•situations
•locations
•each other

We are all subjected to an onslaught of messaging that encourages us to place a value; financial, contribution, aesthetically pleasing or otherwise…on virtually everything we encounter. Have we forgotten some of the golden rules to live by?

-Assume noble intent
-Do not judge a book by it’s cover
-Innocent until proven otherwise

-We judge others by their actions yet we judge ourselves by our intentions. {Hmmm. Read that one again.}

How about “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Luke 6:37 NIV

Does this assume we don’t assess, compare, measure and hold accountable for performance?
Nope.
However, I believe the complete answer may lie in the subtlety of the definition and intent.

Webster says a judge is “one who gives an authoritative opinion”.

So, what makes you an “authority” on whatever it might be that you are judging?

Been there, done that?
-Once or twice?
-Seven times?
-Hundreds of times?

My personal belief is that we, as a society in whole, have grown intolerant of anything we haven’t experienced or don’t fully understand and we don’t understand what we refuse to take adequate time to familiarize ourselves with.

Trust your gut … but take the time to perform the diligence necessary to properly assess, validate, and calibrate. Snap judgements might satisfy the desire for immediate feedback (you’ve been Pavlovian trained to salivate for…) but you will assuredly miss treasures that persevere despite the broken world they may come from.

Have a blessed weekend!