Jesus sometimes used humor to drive home a truth. Think of the serious point in His humorous description in our Bible reading today. He accused the religious leaders of being like a man with a great big beam in his eye offering to remove a tiny speck from his brother's eye (Mt. 7:1-6). How ludicrous!

We are so blind to our own faults but think we can detect the slightest inconsistency in others. We carry two measuring sticks—one for ourselves and one for others.

We have two different sets of words to describe our actions. A "bad temper" in another, we call "righteous indignation" in ourselves. "Stinginess" in others is "frugality" when we practice it.

In addition, we tend to blame others for our own faults. A husband and wife, married 20 years, were driving along, when she suddenly remarked, "You know, John, you are not like you used to be in our early married years—romantic, loving, and affectionate. Then we used to sit close to each other when we went driving, and now you sit so far from me." The husband gently replied, "Mary dear, I am sitting exactly where I always sit when I drive."

Let's beware of a critical attitude. It not only blinds us to our own faults but also has a way of backfiring!  — M.R. De Haan