A Critical Condition and 5 Things Nice

"Somebody call 911, we need an ambulance!"
 911- "9ll, state your emergency."
Caller- "Uh yes, we need an ambulance!"
911- "Is the person breathing?"
Caller- "Oh Yes, no problem there!"
911- "Please tell me the their symptoms."
Caller- "Well, their tongue is flapping and rolling around, and their teeth are chewing and spewing, and...Oh, please! can you just hurry!
911- "Please try to remain calm ma'am, the ambulance is on it's way. Everything is going to be OK."
Caller- "Okay, I hope so, but please hurry, I don't know how much longer I can take it... uh, I mean, if they will make it, it's really bad!"

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I've had this post on my heart for a while now. I've been much convicted of a criticizing spirit of late- my own, and others as well. It exhausts me anymore to listen to it. It dampens my spirit and pollutes the atmosphere. I find myself avoiding people and places where I know I'll hear it. I'm trying to quit, and if I go "there", I am then tempted to indulge.
I've been pondering the reasons why we humans criticize one another, and I don't much like the answers to these questions, mostly because they hit a little too close to home for me. What is it that makes us prone to put-down and criticize others? To name a few:

• Inferiority Complex- criticizing gives us a false sense of superiority. (Nobody's fooled but us.)
• Superiority Complex- We really believe we are better than them and that gives us a right. (Again, false.)
• We are angry and bitter and therefore feel justified to criticize those we blame for our issues.
• We_______. (You fill in the blank.)

Whatever our reasons, it's wrong. I'm not gonna quote a bunch of scriptures here- we know what they are, and if we have to (and we will) give an account for EVERY word we say when we stand before God someday, then I think it behooves us to choose them much more carefully.

Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

James 3:10 NIV

5 Things Nice
When my oldest sister was in Bible College, at some point, she and her peers felt the need to set this new rule to follow. Anytime someone broke the rule, someone else would say,"5 things nice!" I'm thinking it needs to be revisited. But if y'all don't need it, never-mind, I do!

The Rule:
For every time we (accidentally on purpose) speak a criticizing or negative remark about anybody (including ourselves!), we must immediately say 5 things nice about that same person (including...you guessed it, ourselves!). And it wouldn't hurt if someone else were to call us on it if we do. "5 things nice!" Oh, and that "teasing" we do when we really aren't teasing, that counts too. So...if we can't say anything nice...

"Sticks and stones may break the bones- But words can tear the heart out."

Thanks for reading!