Judge Much?

Most of my life I have felt judged. I didn’t look good enough. I wasn’t smart enough. I didn’t have enough money. I wasn’t thin enough. I didn’t do everything right. I didn’t say everything right. I wasn’t talented enough. Nothing was ENOUGH! And there were lots of people around to let me know that I was absolutely right! I was never going to be enough. No matter how much I tried, they didn’t think my efforts were going to be enough.

Finally in adulthood I was like, “What am I doing? Why am I trying so hard?! Why does it matter?” Know what? Personally, it doesn’t! I got tired of being a people-pleaser. It wasn’t pleasing me. I wasn’t be myself really. I wasn’t happy when others were still not satisfied. I felt frustrated. And I was still constantly judged. Who do I need to please? Myself and God. If I can live with myself daily and I can live with my relationship with God, I think I am good. I can always do better in life. That is a given. Who couldn’t? But I don’t have to ask others to be ok with who I am. You like me or not. I’m too old to play games and I am too old to care what you think. I am over it. I will always strive to do better in life, but it will be for personal edification and not to please others.

Recently I was reading a post on Facebook about one person posting about how someone might not be a Christian because of their posts. I like this person. But that bothered me. What if someone was having a bad day and said something with “curse” words in it? Does that make them not a Christian? I don’t think so. Which words are off-limits? Is it ok to talk about drinking but not cussing? I mean, where is the line on this? It really bothered me. If you’re friends with someone, be friends with them and accept them. Their Christianity is their own to deal with. It is not your responsibility.

Personally, I know I cuss too much. I know it. I have talked to God about it. I cuss so I don’t explode. But I guess what I don’t get it is if you don’t agree with someone, then stop being their friend and stop judging them. Do any of us have a right to judge someone else? I don’t know what you deal with. If you heard some of the crap I deal with you might be like, “How does she not snap?!” I cuss too much. I deal with a lot of stress and I feel like my head would blow off if I didn’t let that steam out in some way. Some days I can curtail my mouth and some days I can’t. Some days after you have been told what a terrible human you are and how awful you are and you can’t say anything back to someone, you wait until you are away from the person and then let a stream come out that sometimes turns blue to prevent your head from exploding.

Matthew 7:3-5: ³ Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Yeah, that was Jesus talking. So if He is saying to not judge, maybe we as mere mortals need to take the advice. It’s hard. We’re always going to judge in some fashion. It’s human nature. We do it so well. But most of us don’t like being judged and so most of us need to quit judging. If you want to influence others, a more positive approach is to lead by example. Showing a positive example is the best way to live I think. (I’m trying to cut back on the cussing and deal with stress more positively. So far I haven’t done so well, but I keep trying!)

Related articles

• Judge Not – What does it really mean? (christianitymatters.com)
• Question: How To Judge People Without Alienating Them (Spoiler: You Can’t) (jsparkblog.com)
• “Why are Christians so judgmental?” (altruistico.wordpress.com)
• Matthew Chapter 7 Verses One through five (redeemedbythe1.wordpress.com)
• Don’t Judge That? – Unscrambling Judgment – Part 5 (anotherredletterday.com)
• “if you judge people, you have no time to love them” (lindsayleighbentley.com)

Whose Business Is It?

Cover via Amazon

I was listening to Byron Katie’s audiobook  Loving What Is  and really got into it. One thing she said that got me is when we are thinking of shoulds and shouldn’ts, we are often worrying about things that are often not our business. There are things that are your business, my business and God’s business. I should worry about my business. I can’t stop every thought, but I can decide whose business it is and try to let it just be their business.

It’s not that I even care too much about other people’s business. A lot of times I care about how other people feel about me. Know what? That’s not my business! I can’t change them or their view. I can only live my life to make myself the best person I feel I need to be and do what makes me feel better. I know who I have to answer to at the end of the day and at the end of my life. Most of the people who I have been worried about in the past are not in those two categories so ultimately I don’t need to worry so much about what they think!

It’s a pretty liberating thought when you really consider it. While very liberating, it is also very difficult. We’re not wired that way. Well, not most of us anyway. I wasn’t. I was raised by a baby-boomer who wanted me to behave 85% of the time. She enjoyed my impropriety 10% of the time and then the other 5% of the time she was confused by it.

I am trying to do my hardest to live my life with it my business. I do wish people approved of my business, but I can’t live for others. I tried. I really did. It caused me to marry the wrong man and then to live in pain and tears for years due to that wrong and fateful decision. Why? Because I was living someone else’s business.

So whose business is it? It’s Amy’s business! And I’m living it intentionally now.

(If you have lived for others, I urge you to check out Byron Katie. It’s very good. Read  her book or listen to her audiobook Loving What Is.)

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Perception Is A Funny Thing

I was talking to one of my BFFs today and she said something that struck me. She told me that she thought I was strong. Her perception of me is so different than what I think of myself. The thing is that I feel she is incredibly strong and I don’t know how she went through the things she has and survived so well. She doesn’t view herself that way either.

It seems like when we go through trials we just do it because there aren’t many options. You do it or you die. It’s simple in some ways and yet so complicated. In my ups and downs, there were times where dying seemed like the better option. But God has a plan. I still don’t know what it is, but I’m learning more each day.

But don’t you find it interesting that you can tell someone they’re so strong and courageous and they look at you like you’re nuts? And you feel the same at times during difficult circumstances. I suppose when we’re so entangled in the drama and emotional upheaval that we can’t be objective and see that it’s really amazing that we’re functioning at all. We may just be going through the motions, but sometimes that’s more than anyone else expected of us.

In Defense of Mental Illness

Mental illness…two words that scare the hell out of some people. It scares those who have never dealt with it. It scares those who remain ignorant to it. Do  you know what mental illness is? It is an illness that affects the mind. It can range in severity. It can be something so simple as a chemical imbalance, which only means that your body isn’t producing enough of a certain chemical to make your brain fire “normally”. Or it can be so severe that you are a danger to others. The range is VAST!

I bring this up because frankly I consider diabetes to be something of a chemical imbalance as well. Your body is  not making the amount of insulin necessary. That’s a chemical imbalance isn’t it? People who suffer diabetes generally aren’t told how terrible they are for having diabetes. No. They are told to go to the doctor and to get treatment. And a lot of times treatment is affordable and their medications and appointments are covered by insurance. This is not always the case for people with mental illness.

People with mental illness can’t always afford their illness. It isn’t always covered by insurance. It is sometimes covered under a special umbrella. There are limitations. There are limits on visits. There are limits on who they can see. There are limits on medications. There are limits on lifetime benefits.

Most people with a true mental illness aren’t instantly cured with a few sessions. It is ongoing. It is painful. It is their life. Just like type 1 Diabetes affects patients for a lifetime, mental illness can affect patients for a lifetime. Sometimes there are situations, such as dealing with a situation, where a person will only need temporary help. The limitations on insurance might be effective for those types of situations, but for people with chronic, on-going issues, it is not helpful.

It pisses me off and pains me when I hear people speak so negatively about people with mental health issues. I feel like people just don’t get it and just don’t care to get it. They feel holier than thou and prefer to stay safe in their bubble-wrapped glass houses. They feel they are untouchable by something that has touched so many. I feel sorry for their ignorance and yet disdainful for their judgments. They are so ignorant to think that the perfect storm couldn’t cause the same situations to affect their lives and so judgmental to assume they could or would handle things differently had they walked in another’s shoes. You can’t look at one aspect of a person’s life and think about how you would handle something (i.e., suicide); no, you have to look at all the pain, losses, grief, etc. they have endured throughout their whole life and see that they went through that while dealing with mental illness. Sometimes they are only in dealing with something that is situational. Other times they are dealing with something that has affected them from the time they were conceived.

Why do I have such a strong opinion on this? I have dealt with mental illness from the moment I was born. I was surrounded by it. I was around people who had it. I have it. My loved ones have. My loved ones had it. It has hurt me in ways I can’t describe. I have had it shape my life. I have worked in it. I understand it. I don’t understand it.

I suppose those answers are confusing. I have dealt with depression for just about as long as I remember. I am not going to discuss all of it. It is personal and it is mine. The severity of my depression has ranges. When my personal life was a wreck and everything was falling apart, I will admit I wanted to die. I didn’t want to just die for a moment. No. I wanted to die. I really wanted to die. But I wanted to live more. I prayed and begged God to help me and He did. I was and am grateful God loved me enough to get through to me. He kept pointing out to me the Bible verse Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This did give me hope at times when I had none. This gave me strength to reach out and get help. I was blessed and lucky. I was able to get help.

I do not consider myself any better than anyone else. Some people can’t hear God because they are too deep in a pit of despair and depression. Some people don’t turn to God because they feel He is the reason for their despair. Because of this, they may do a variety of things to try to feel better. It’s a form of self-medication. When  you feel bad, don’t you try to feel better? Most do. They have probably tried various methods and they’ve failed. They probably feel like a failure. If they don’t kill themselves then they start doing something to numb themselves or make life tolerable. They take a pill or drink something. It can lead to more and more. This can lead to addiction. I’m not saying it is a good way to medicate. But it is often cheaper than going to the doctor. You don’t have to make an appointment. You don’t have to fight with your insurance company to do it. You can just medicate. And it is readily available. (Unless you live in the South and have Blue Laws.)

Mental illness isn’t just one type of illness. As I said, there are many types. If you want to learn more, you can visit NAMI, which is the National Alliance on Mental Illness. You can look up information specifically about mental illness and get answers. You can also look for support and/or programs that might be beneficial. It is a little easier to understand than DSM, which is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is the book that psychiatrists and psychologists use as their bible daily.

I ask anyone reading this to please consider how you could easily be affected by the disease of mental illness. It is a disease as much as diabetes and other things are. You should treat it as such and treat the people afflicted with it with the same respect you would with any other illness or disease. Don’t condemn them. Would  you want someone slinging hateful words at you for something that is consuming  your life that you didn’t ask for and were born with? Try having mercy. I ask others to please remember that you still could be affected by mental illness. If you have a brain, which I hope you do, then something could affect it at some point in your life. My hope is that it doesn’t. But if it does, I hope you have support. I have lived through times where I felt there was no support. Those are the hardest times of all.

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Changing My Ways

Most of us have felt the stinging pain of rejection at some point in life. If you haven’t you are very lucky. I have been very unlucky. I have felt it a lot in life. It is a painful thing. Sometimes the rejection comes from people who you really cared about and some from people you really don’t really give 2 craps about. For the ones you don’t really care about, you are usually having to reach out for a work situation or social situation. The rejection just causes awkwardness and makes life a little more difficult because you have to work hard to accomplish a goal.

Rejection from people whom you care about? Oh boy! That is a different story altogether! It can be a love interest, friends, or even family. I have experienced it all. It really hits your self-esteem. It makes you wonder if you are such a terrible person that these people refuse to care about you. I have gone to therapy about this because I used to think that something was really wrong with me. Surely to God there really must be something wrong if nobody gave a damn about me. Right? The therapist asked me if nobody really gave a damn about me. Honestly? Nobody? Was there nobody on this earth that loved me? I started ticking off the names of a few people who really loved me unconditionally. The therapist then said, “The problem isn’t that nobody loves you. The problem is that your picker is wrong.” I stared at him as if he had suddenly gone mad. What the hell is a picker and how do you get it fixed?! He said, “You are attached to some people biologically. That doesn’t mean they are going to love you. That doesn’t mean you are going to love them. You may have had a past with them but if it is over and done, it just is. Treasure it for what it was. But as for the new people, you are picking some people who are not good for you! They are not emotionally available to you. At first it doesn’t bother you but then it does. Quit picking them!”

I mulled over what the therapist had said. When we talked again I brought up the picker thing. He explained that my picker did pick some good people. I did have some good people in my life. The point he wanted me to see is to just look at these people closer. He knew I guarded my heart already and that could be a double-edged sword. But I needed to quit letting these people’s actions hurt me so much. If they were hurting me in any capacity for a long period, then I needed to get rid of them. Lack of care is a form of hurt, too. I couldn’t let people put me on the back burner until they decided they wanted me to be a part of their life again. That wasn’t fair to me. It honestly made me feel like a marionette. Someone jerking strings and controlling my movements.

It took a long time to realize that I could control who was a part of my life. In a way it wasn’t the way I was raised and in another way, it was exactly the way I was raised. I know that doesn’t make sense. I was always taught to forgive and forget and all that good Southern stuff. And it is good…to an extent. Too much of it, though, can eat away at you. It erodes your insides. It makes you feel as if the relationship is more important than you. That is not good. When you lose your autonomy because of people-pleasing, you feel defeated. That is how I felt for a very long time. Let me emphasize VERY long time. It changed who I was. I am now changing my ways. I am changing back to my real self. I can only please some of the people some of the time, and that includes me.

I am working on fixing my people picker. I wish there was a service department for that. It would make life so much easier. I am learning that while some people may reject me, that it is their loss. It isn’t me that they are necessarily rejecting. It is their inability to deal with someone smart and outspoken. I have found that some people cannot have a rational conversation with anyone who might challenge their thinking. I don’t argue with everyone, but I do think for myself. Some people don’t like that. Some people do. I’ll eventually find more people who do like that.

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