dailydatewithgod

We all have an inner critic.  For some of us, the inner critic is loud and for some, it is very quiet.  The easy thing to do is to villainize the critic or try to ignore it.  If you have ever found yourself judging yourself for something you thought was wrong and then judging yourself for judging yourself you know my dilemma.  Thankfully as a result of being open to how God sees things this is no longer my dominant perspective.  Approaching one’s inner critic as an amenity is one way to shift our perspective.  I did not create the inner critic, it seemed to just appear one day. This leads me to believe it is part of the design. Sometimes it may be an element of myself I struggle with, want to excise from my life, or am befuddled as to its purpose.  Yet none of my thinking about it has proven to make it obsolete.  If I could understand how God designed all the parts of who we are, then I would most likely be God.  What I can do is take the amenity approach. It is a way of opening the door of the heart to see what the inner critic is trying to convey.  If one has been around long enough, one has witnessed how people who are bullies are often trying to compensate for some weakness or those who tout themselves as above others are attempting to compensate for feeling less than. It is no different than what is happening for us internally.  Most of the time when I approach my inner critic with amenity I find out what is underneath it. Often it is fear, sometimes it is anger about something completely unrelated, and always it is another way of learning to embrace all of who I am with love.  I cannot hope to even broach the deeper level of what is trying to be conveyed if I am in judgment. Amenity is the lens of the heart, especially when being civil is the last thing we are inclined to use an approach with our inner critic.  I think often of a question I heard once: When you are at war with yourself, who wins?