Principles- Successful Deeds- 2/4/2016

   In former articles, I discussed the storms striking man’s life like storms of fear, lack of confidence, anger and despair. They are internal feelings resulted due to an experience man had in his life or his closed ones’.
However, there are external storms that blow up attacking man and aim at destroying him, one of them is the storm of ” destructive criticism “.In order to be able to face it ,I’ d like to put stress on some points:
• Discernment:
   For a start, man should learn to discern between constructive and destructive criticism, those who criticize you for your own good and those who advise you to disguise their bad intention of running you. Be discerning to other people’s words as your distinctive sense of discernment will determine the effect of their words on your thoughts and attitudes toward others. Remember Norman Vincent Peale’s advice that the problem of many of us that we’d rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism! One of the most important points to be discerning is to think logically and objectively of the words you hear, take into consideration both praise and criticism and be accurate in determining how far they are from truth. If the matter involves other people’s opinions, you should listen to them as well to judge matter with fair. Being fair will let you discover unimaginable facts. Put in consideration that the greatest people would not tell you about others’ faults and negativities, but about the very principles and values. Once you discover that the criticism you hear is destructive, you should…
• Raise above it:
   They say, get used to ignore as everything you hear doesn’t deserve an answer. It will be harder on you, if you give importance to the destructive criticism, you will lost your effort, time and energy in proving how others are mistaken, accordingly you will lose your simplicity and your free spirit. Shakespeare said, “The hardest battle in your life when people push you to be someone else..!!”.How hard it is when man loses his simplicity! How painful it is when life storms push you in a rough sea with no shore. Don’t be afraid of the destructive criticism, but let it increase your strength, resistance and perseverance during your life’s path.
• Concentrate on your goal and ambitions:
   Negative criticism is the weak person’s trick to hinder the progress of successful people who seek to reach mountains’ tops with all their efforts. Your trying to stop them means you give them a permission, even if it’s temporary, to hinder you and change your way. Thus, they will achieve their aim and hinder your way. However, you should put your noble goals and serious efforts to reach them before your eyes and be ready to this kind of criticism as all successful deeds were hit by it storm.
• Face destructive criticism positively:
   Destructive criticism is nothing but words far from truth and unfair judgment of persons or situations. Don’t be afraid of them as your successful deeds will be the best answer that supports you in your presence or absence. Let your answer toward any criticism is to work more, be more steadfast and confident in our Just God who will uncover secrets of people’s hearts as no secret won’t be revealed one day. Dear reader, just don’t get panicked from a storm raised by mere words!

Anba Ermiah,
General Bishop& President of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center