How do we react to criticism?

“and you say [on your deathbed], ‘How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!’”
-Proverbs 5:12

This is my fear for our generation.

This is my real fear, that we will find ourselves upon our deathbed, wondering why we were so proud as to not take correction.

Or worse still, that we will find ourselves before the Lord on the Day of Judgment, wondering why we didn’t listen to those who were trying to point us in the right direction.

We have this idea in modern America that I am the one who decides what is right for me, and that no one can say anything otherwise. We tell each other this all the time. We say, “Don’t judge me!” over the slightest criticism. We hang out with people who will defend us no matter what, even when we are wrong, as though it is a virtue to ignore the evil things we do.

We have so completely been sold on this “virtue” of individuality that we have forgotten what true virtue is. We have marches celebrating terrible sin. We legislate “rights” to do whatever we want, and then complain when someone frowns on our behavior.

I would agree that a lot of this frowning misses the point. A lot of it is just self-righteousness spewing out. But I tell you the truth – love will correct when needed. Love steps in when needed.

The parents who refuse to punish their children are not loving parents. No, love will punish a child when the child needs punishment. The friend who sits by and lets someone sleep with everyone he meets isn’t a good friend. Love will sometimes say, “Hey, this is destructive behavior.”

We don’t want love in this country. Not really. We want license. We want people to tell us that we are doing fantastic, that everything we try is perfectly fine.

It’s not.

And if we are lucky, when we reflect on our lives upon our deathbeds, we will realize how far astray we have gone.

We have spent our lives in pursuit of lust, greed, ambition, pride, hatred, and selfishness. We have put all our efforts into those things instead of love. And when love does come and try to correct us, we scold it and throw it aside. All it does is get in the way of our fun.

It is my prayer that we will realize how bad we have made things because of sin before we die. It is my prayer that we will realize, turn our eyes to Jesus, and repent of those evils we have done. We will believe in Him and His death upon the Cross, how He took the punishment for our sins there. We will believe that because of His finished work, we will be saved, not because of our own good works.

It is my prayer that this will happen. My fear is that we will go into death, still seeking license rather than love. If so, all we will find in death is justice. And that’s not something we really want.