The Gospel according to Teddy Roosevelt

By Glenn Miller

GOD’S WORD: “The Lord’s bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition.” – 2 Timothy 2: 24-25a

It was one of those times where a commonly held truth I discovered some time ago rang true; that there are two kinds of people in the world: those that strive valiantly to make a difference in their workplace, family, church, community or world and those who are critical of those who do. Criticism mainly happens when one is being corrected for their wrong. Critique is healthy; it is there to strengthen souls, but there are times when it can weaken people. This happens when harsh people abuse their critiquing power.

Jesus warns us that we should expect criticism, especially when it is for His sake. And if it’s constructive (criticism that seeks to strengthen, edify and build us up), then it should be gladly accepted. But often some people just have a critical spirit and simply gain their prestige or self-worth by criticizing others in a hope to make themselves look better. Beware of those with a critical spirit!

There is a significant difference between helping someone improve and having a critical spirit. A critical spirit is never pleased. A critical spirit expects and finds disappointment wherever it looks. It is the opposite of 1 Corinthians 13: a critical spirit arrogantly judges, is easily provoked, accounts for every wrong, and never carries any hope of being pleased. Such an attitude damages the critiqued as well as the critic.

I love what President Teddy Roosevelt said about criticism:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Misguided and illegitimate criticism is one of the enemy’s most effective weapons to dislodge our joy and our identity in Christ. So many good intentions in the kingdom of God have been abandoned due to fear of receiving criticism. So today and every day, let’s weigh the criticism we receive upon the scales of what God’s Word tells us and who Jesus says we are!