Andrew is my new hero. While visiting a neighbor, five-year-old Andrew pulled out his kindergarten class picture and immediately began describing each classmate. “This is Robert; he hits everyone. This is Stephen. He never listens to the teacher. This is Mark. He chases us and is very noisy.” Pointing to his picture, Andrew commented, “And this is me. I’m just sitting here minding my own business.” I like this kid. He represents the all too human tendency we posses to think more of ourselves than we should.

Sunday morning I will preach on the leanings all of us can have of being habitual fault finders. Jesus uses the analogy of picking a speck out of a person’s eye all the while there is a plank in our own eye. It is a funny image today and I am fully convinced that he intended it be humorous when he said it. Sunday morning I will delve into the importance of ongoing and genuine self examination. I am of the opinion that we spend little time really examining our motives and attitudes. I also intend to stress that there is a major difference between useful self-examination and berating ourselves in foolish and unhelpful ways. I have never seen self-berating behavior lead to meaningful change.

In the process of this preparation, I have been pondering our propensity to be very opinionated people. I know I am guilty. I am pretty eager to tell those around me what I think about everything and everybody. I am opinionated for sure. If a person appears to be clearly wrong in their conduct or analysis of an issue, I have been known call them less than favorable names. “Idiot” and “chump” unfortunately are staples in my vocabulary. And of course I justify my judgments by the preponderance of solid evidence that I have tucked away in the opinion hemisphere of my brain. If the truth be known, I am worse than 5 year old Andrew. I am old enough to have a greater sense of honest self awareness. I wonder how many times I am clearly wrong in my analysis of a situation?

Perhaps it is time for me to recall the admonition of my Southern mother to keep my opinions to myself if they are not nice. She continually exhorted all three of us not to talk “u’gliii” about people. (That is Southern for “ugly” by the way.) It has to be pronounced correctly for the proper effect.

Opinions can be good. Positive change in society is often launched by one outspoken person expressing their belief about some form of injustice. As I finish my preparation for Sunday, I am simply convicted that I need to do some self-examination before I launch any verbal grenades. I am very aware today that 5 year old Andrew and I are cut out of the same pattern. Both of us have a lot to learn about self-awareness. Self-examination is a good thing. And preach it I will Sunday morning.