Guilty As Charged

A week or so I complained and criticized. About stuff that's none of my business. To more people than I ought to have. If you're reading this there's a good chance you were one who heard my criticical remarks. Even if the complaints had a valid point—it was still none of my business.

The next day I was listening to this in the car:

(You know you're getting old when you listen to audio books more than the radio.)

Topic: Criticizing

Dr. Lund shared a portion from a speech President Hinckley gave at BYU on a "terrible ailment...in the land": criticism. President Hinckley said he'd given this talk at least three times previously because he felt it was such a problem.

"We're constantly fed a steady and sour diet of character assassination, faultfinding, evil speaking of one another...The tragedy is that this spirit of negativism seems to prevail throughout the country.

"...This spirit has infected the atmosphere on university campuses and the workplace, even this campus. The snide remark, the sarcastic gibe, the cutting down of associates--these too often are the essence of our conversation. In our homes, wives weep and children finally give up under the barrage of criticism leveled by husbands and fathers. Criticism is the forerunner of divorce, the cultivator of rebellion, sometimes a catalyst that leads to failure. Even in the Church it sows the seed of inactivity and, finally, in many cases, apostasy.

"I come this evening with a plea that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight. I'm suggesting that we accentuate the positive. I'm asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment virtue and effort.

"I am not asking that all criticism be silent. Growth comes with correction. Strength comes with repentance. Wise is the man or woman who, committing mistakes pointed out by others, changes his or her course. I am not suggesting that our conversation be all honey. Clever expression that is sincere and honest is a skill to be sought and cultivated. What I am suggesting and asking is that we turn from the negativism that so permeates our society and look for the remarkable good in the land and times in which we live, that we speak of one another's virtues more than we speak of one another's faults, that optimism replace pessimism."

"The Lord is at the Helm," Gordon B. Hinckley, Mar. 6, 1994, BYU Devotional

I felt reprimanded, to say the least.

On a similar note, I get a kick out of this clip: