Each month I make a monthly challenge for myself. This past month’s challenge was to not judge other people. The biggest way this benefited me was in making me more aware of when and how I am judging other people. This includes the jokes I make, the prayers I say, the musings I have, the opinions I express, and the agreements I give.

Do I think the ideal life is one of not judging others? Absolutely not! I feel the ideal life is one where all my judgments of others are righteous (John 7:24). This means a few things:

1. I have already judged and corrected myself. I usually see in others the faults that I possess. My first priority should be correcting my own life before meddling with others.
2. I realize everyone else is living for the same thing I am living for. I am living for personal fulfillment. So is everyone else I know. If I acknowledge this, I don’t view someone as bad or irritable, but simply misguided at worst if they disagree with me.
3. The only reason I judge others is to help them. I will not judge someone mentally or verbally unless I believe by doing so I can help them become a more fulfilled person. I will only tear down in order to build up better. 
4. I am able to realize a person’s awesomeness despite their beliefs with which I disagree. What this means is that before I judge someone I discover the good qualities they possess and form a positive image of them based on these. Then, my judgment is balanced out by all the favorable impressions I have formed of them already.

This attitude of no judging has also affected my prayer life. I used to pray for what I felt people needed mostly, which is a judgment of them. Though I still do this, I now include much more praying for what I think people would want me to pray for them. This makes me excited to see them so I can find out more of how I should pray for them.

All in all, this adventure with being non-judgmental of others has been productive. Please see this post and this post for more thoughts on judging others.