••KEEP••Rev. Rowley BW
Rev. Elizabeth Rowley is an independent columnist for The Atascadero News and Paso Robles Press; you can email her at revelizabeth@cccsl.org.

Mother Teresa said that “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

Having a fixed view of others that is anything less than the brilliant, radiant sparkly goodness they came here to be reflects how we feel about ourselves. (Your perception of me is a reflection of you.) Being judgmental creates a complex of superiority and infers the object being judged as inferior or unworthy. Everyone is worthy of God’s love. We are called to love all people. I’m not talking about codependency, but radiant unconditional love.

As we love others, we also love ourselves because everything we do, be, think, feel, and believe affects us first. Ernest Holmes says, “Love heals, forgives, and makes us whole.” I know it’s true. But, when I judge others, I feel off-balance and icky inside. It creates a constricted feeling of separation that doesn’t resonate with who I came here to be.

Also, when we judge people, we halt the flow of love in our consciousness. Similarly, unforgiveness, resentments, and upsets block our bright, shiny experience of the sunlight of the Spirit. Our judgment of others closes off the promises of the kingdom of heaven within. Judging people closes the blinds and prevents the sunshine from spilling in to fill your house with light.
If you’ve been judging or carrying resentment, perhaps now is the prime time to release it. Ernest Holmes said, “Through the power of love, we can let go of past history and begin again.” This love lives within you and cannot be destroyed. When we abandon love for something else, like judgment, we feel that it has left us. We have denied the love that lives within us and mistakenly think love has rejected us. You can break the spell today by releasing judgment and returning to love.

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Everyone deserves to be created new every time we meet them because everyone evolves and transforms physically, emotionally, and spiritually daily.

To practice creating a new experience of others – Treat people as though you are meeting them for the first time every time you interact with them. Let go of the past. It no longer exists. See others and the world as it is right here in this moment now.

In our desire to be judge-free, we shall maintain our ability to be discerning. For me, this means noticing objective differences among stimuli (activities, people, objects, etc.) along relevant dimensions. Thus, for example, a discerning person will recognize differences in the musical ability of singers, objective differences in lengths of lines, the ferociousness of animals, and the quality of coffee blends.

I declare today to be a judgment-free day. I catch myself before judging people, places, and things, including myself, and I send love instead. Dissipating the walls I have built up with judgment, I am now free to approach everyone I meet and greet with an open heart. I am calm, peaceful, and poised. I am living love. I am judge-free.

And so it is.