The Speck and the Plank

The Plaque on e wall read, “I cannot solve my problems, but I will gladly advise you on yours”

So often it is the person who has no children who knows exactly how you should raise yours It is the person who is poor that seems to always give advice on how you can become rich The one who has multiple accidents can always tell you Just how to drive A brother we know who does not do much speaking always comes up after someone else’s talk and tells them what they should have said and the verses they should have used.

Like the plaque says, it is those with no clue as to how to solve their own problems who have lots of ideas how you can solve yours How is it that we always know what the other fellow should do, when we do not know what we should do to solve our problems? This must be the parable of the beam and the mote being acted out m real life In the NKJV they are called the speck and the plank The Lord says to us “And why do you look at the speck m your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank m your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’ and look, a plank is m your own eye? Hypocrite’ First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt 7:3-5)

We know the parable well We all understand the lesson the Lord is teach-mg us In spite of this, we often continue to tell others how to solve their problems while ours are still there staring us in the face as big as a plank.

We not only need to understand the point that the Lord was making, but we need to begin to apply the lesson to ourselves.

Are we critical of others? Do we complain about our brothers and sisters? Are we busy telling others how we think someone else should behave?

Just what does our Lord tell us to do? He says, “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” The word “first” is important We need to get our own house in order before we try to tell our brother how to clean his If we would only remember this good advice from our Lord we would be more inclined to listen to James when he tells us, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath”

Before we criticize another, first stop Listen Consider our own short­comings The faster we are at listening, the slower we will be to speak Our anger will be controlled and we will make our words sweet when we do speak It is good to always make our words sweet because we may later have to eat them If we do this, then those who receive our advice may react as did David when he said to Abigail, “Blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou.”