Judgment no More

Sometimes when we have thoughts racing through our heads as we are making observations around us, we immediately see a situation and make a judgment based on what we see. I did this yesterday in church of all places and thought to myself how I couldn't wait to get out of church and post something funny about this.

There was a little 2 year old boy eating a baggy of Honey Bunches of Oats- the kind with a million flakes, and almonds in it. I thought to myself now why would the parents give this kid something so messy to eat?  Throughout church I thought about how I could post something on social media and how I could make it where I felt empathy for the people, so that I didn't look like I was placing judgment or that I was better than them.  I conjured up in my head that maybe that was all they had in the cupboard to give him to snack on... but oh what a mess and why would you give that to your kid in church, by the time he was done the floor had a layer of dust on it, by the end of mass the overly pregnant mother had reached down and picked up every single crumb on that floor-something I judged that the parents wouldn't do (going back to my waitress days when most parents left the mess under the table for someone else to clean up for them). During the mass when the priest gave his sermon he spoke about a grandmother back in the 1950's  who was fined in court for getting caught stealing a loaf of bread to feed her grandchildren. I am sure others were quick to judge that she was a menace or troublemaker. When she went to court the judge declared that she did deserve the fine, for she had broken the law no matter the reason. He reached under his desk, pulled out a baseball cap stuck a $10 bill in it, passed it around to the courtroom declaring that every one of them in the community should be fined for allowing their fellow patron to have to steal to feed her grandchildren. The sweet old lady not only paid her fine but was able to take home $50 to feed her grandchildren. Back then $50 probably went further than a couple hundred dollars today.
As he tied together the readings regarding "doubting Thomas" and his sermon stories that Blessed are those who believe and have not seen, the last note was that you should never place judgment on anyone until you have walked in their shoes. Just because we see it doesn't mean it is that way, and just because we don't see something doesn't mean it is not there. So the next time you are quick to judge someone based on just what you physically see, remember, even if you can't help conjuring up judgment in your head, think before you speak.