Article October 10, 2016 Issue

Conquering destructive criticism

Marilyn Wickstrom

“I’m too critical,” I confided to a friend. I didn’t like this about myself. It made me unhappy and was at the root of many problems in my life. What I didn’t realize at first was that I had accepted this negative quality as part of my identity.

Then one day while I was studying the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson found in the Christian Science Quarterly, I read about my true spiritual identity as God’s likeness. It dawned on me like the sun coming out from behind a cloud: This overly critical attitude was not a part of me—never had been nor would be. Negative criticism does not come from God, so it isn’t in our true nature as His likeness. We include only what comes from God.

I saw that through prayer, I could let a judgmental quality of thought go and be free from the burden it imposed on me and others around me. The spiritual reality is that we are the children of God and reflect His perfection. Our true being and life is the outcome of God’s love—divine Love’s own expression. Knowing this enabled me to reject the belief that I or anyone could be weighed down with an unhelpful, critical disposition.

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