Can you take criticism? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
Today, we look at Ecclesiastes 7:5-6.
It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise
than to hear the song of fools.
6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of the fools;
this also is vanity.
Honestly, I hate being wrong.
I know I have been wrong several times in my life, but I don’t like it. What is even harder at times is when someone else sees it and points it out. That’s pretty painful. We’ve all been there. Some people can take it easier than others. My hating it is a problem that I need to work on.
Right now in the PhD program, my big struggle is academic writing. The content of my work is there. The form it is presented in is lacking. Over this past semester, I had to har a lot of things from other people on how my writing needed to be improved in this area. Some things I do not think will change. I struggle if I make an outline as my thinking becomes disjointed in that case. When I just start writing and let it flow, it comes out better.
Yet sometimes, I still struggle. I don’t know what needs to be further emphasized and what doesn’t. I do have a team of people that I send my writings to to get feedback in this area, and if you want to be on that team, let me know. Fortunately, my professors in the midst of giving feedback also always gave encouragement. Either way, I had to sit and listen and realize that I had a lot of work to do, and still do.
Part of it is realizing that these people really do care about me and believe in me. There is still a lot of insecurity in me, no doubt, a lot of that comes from being divorced. When I would talk to my professors, I would try to always have our conversations end on a note of encouragement.
In our day and age, people cannot take criticism and it has reached the point where saying anything critical is perceived as an attack. People have this idea many times that they are above being criticized. This leads to an axiom I have in interactions with people. If I meet someone who cannot accept that they are wrong in anything, I have no reason to think that they are right in anything. There are many people I know who would rather commit ritual suicide than to admit that they got something wrong.
When people come into your life who really care about you and they tell you you are wrong on something, try to accept it as coming from a place of love. Maybe they are wrong in their opinion, but it should be considered. If the person is an enemy, they are not coming from a place of love, but they could still be right. Take it into consideration and go to someone you trust and ask. Being criticized is not the worst thing in the world. Being stuck in a wrong opinion is far worse.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
Support Deeper Waters on Patreon!
