Well, on Monday, on the podcast, we open the week talking about gossip and why it's so tempting

to speak badly about other people behind their backs in order to harm their own reputation.

I'm still thinking about all the hard issues that we talked about in that very important

and helpful episode.

If you didn't listen to it, I would encourage you to do so.

Today, we talk about the grace of receiving personal criticism from others and learning

from those criticisms for our own personal growth.

There are some incredibly vivid proverbs on this theme, like Proverbs 17, 10, a rebuke

goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.

Wow.

So, how do we receive rebuke as a wise man seeking greater wisdom?

And specifically, Pastor John, how do you do it?

It's the question from an anonymous listener in Australia who asks this.

Hello, Pastor John.

I was wondering how you deal with personal criticisms from others.

How do you process them, learn from them, and determine which ones are accurate and which

ones are not?

That question, of course, is all the more relevant in a day of social media when you not only

have a few dozen people in your family in church or neighborhood or network at work who

might criticize you and you can deal with face to face, but you have a few million people

who might get wind of your opinion on Twitter or Facebook or blog or wherever you happen

to be talking.

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