Time Wasted Judging

Branching off of my previous theme of courage, I’d like to touch on the 2009 Young Women address by President Thomas S. Monson entitled “May You Have Courage” where, to support his first point of having the courage to refrain from judging others, he quotes Mother Teresa, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

I was quite taken by this quote, as simple as it is, and find it to be a truthful statement. It’s a concept of time—if we spend our time judging or thinking negatively of others, than we lose time when we could be thinking positively and uplifting others. I don’t believe we can do both at the same time.

And this is assuming that “judging” is purely a negative thing. Using your judgment is useful and essential in life when used appropriately, however, I use the word judgment here to mean gossip and criticism.

Doctrine and Covenants 88:123 reads, “See that ye love one another; cease to be covetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires.” Well said. To love your neighbor as yourself is the second of God’s great commandments.

And of course, no one’s perfect. The natural man and worldly competition harbor the tendency to look on others with a critical eye; in most cases, passing judgment is a selfish tactic of raising ourselves above another. But forgetting our pride and understanding that everyone is different and that we never know the “entire story” of one’s situation, experiences, etc. can help us to refrain from making judgments that are almost always unjustified.

Elder Wirthlin said, “We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever” (“The Great Commandment”). If we spend less of our time criticizing others and more time looking for the positive, we will begin to see them as our Father in Heaven does. We’re not perfect, and neither are our fellow men. Who are we to judge who is better than another when God loves all of his children?