Time to get started on the October 2016 General Conference!
In the General Women's Session, Sister Jean B. Bingham opened the Conference with a talk titled In this talk, Sister Bingham spoke of the wisdom and courtesy of withholding judgement. As an example, she spoke of how a young girl described a certain creature as a strange-looking chicken, only to be informed that the bird was actually a peacock, one of God's most beautiful creatures.
Wouldn't we feel foolish if we made such a mistake? Yet, we do so all the time. Every time we belittle or find fault in anyone, including ourselves, we are speaking badly of one of God's greatest creatures, just because we don't recognise them as such. It would be much wiser, and more kind, to withhold such judgement, and to offer compliments and encouragement instead of criticism.
We would each do well to learn to be cautious and courteous with our words, especially when we direct them at children of God. I think that if we saw ourselves and each other the way God sees us, we wouldn't be so quick to criticise people. Sure, people may have faults now, but we all also have the potential to overcome those faults, and encouraging words will help us along a lot better than critical ones will.
So let's try not to consider anyone a strange-looking chicken, especially when we are all really peacocks, waiting for a chance to fan out our feathers.
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