Judging
Insights From Vacation Bible School
The Plank, the Speck, and the Mirror of Grace
The Cookie Catastrophe
It started over cookies. (Doesn’t it always?)
Bubba had tripped Timmy, causing Kool-Aid to splash all over Emily’s dress.
“Look what you did!” Keisha shouted.
Bubba shrugged. “I didn’t mean for him to fall. It was just a joke.”
Timmy wiped his shirt and glared. “My daddy taught me better than that! I’d never do something like you!”
A.J. nodded. “Yeah, Bubba. That was mean.”
And while they were saying that, A.J. quietly took two cookies from Ryan’s plate when he wasn’t looking.
Eric chimed in, “I hate when people act like that.” (This, of course, came minutes after he’d been making fun of Bubba’s cowboy boots.)
By the end of the day, everyone had managed to point out someone else’s fault—and no one felt any better for it.
Dude, There’s a Log in Your Eye
Jesus’ words in Luke 6:41 ring uncomfortably true:
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own?”
We all do it.
We judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions.
We call out their sin and rename ours as “struggles.”
It’s a strange kind of comfort—making someone else smaller so we can feel bigger. But that’s not the gospel.
The gospel doesn’t level us through comparison; it levels us through grace.
Grace Changes the View
Jesus didn’t come to make us better critics of others; He came to redeem us all.
When I remember that I’ve been forgiven much, it gets harder to throw stones.
Grace doesn’t blind us to sin—it changes how we see it.
Instead of saying, “How could they?” Grace says, “But for the grace of God, so could I.”
Judgment builds walls; mercy builds bridges.
And it’s often the very person we’re tempted to judge who ends up teaching us something about the heart of God.
Reflection
Where do you catch yourself judging others’ actions more harshly than your own?
What changes when you see people not as problems to fix, but as souls to love?
How can you practice mercy in a moment that once would have provoked judgment?
Prayer
Jesus, thank You for loving me when I deserved judgment. Help me see others through Your mercy, not my pride. Teach me to lay down the stones I’ve been carrying and extend the grace You’ve given me. Amen.