“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  -Matthew 7:1-5

This has really been hitting me in the gut the past few days. I’ve come to the realization that all too often I am caught up in what others are doing or not doing.  My focus shifts all too easily to the action, or inaction, of others, consequently leading to judgment by my less than perfect self.  More and more I am learning to live at peace with the fact that when I meet my Maker, I am only responsible for MYSELF and MY actions.  I do not have to answer for what anybody else did or didn’t do with their time here on earth.  That doesn’t mean that I can’t help or give assistance from time to time.  BUT, as the verses above state, many times the issues that I need to deal with in my own life are of far greater consequence than those I notice in the lives of others.  I love how we are commanded to pull the PLANK out of our own eyes before removing the SPECK out of our brother’s eye.  I think Christians would be much better off to spend twice as much time focusing on themselves as they do the lives of others.  Let’s clean our own house before we move on to focusing on the houses of others.