I've Resigned As a Glove Critic

Be Careful What You Criticize

                In my previous profession, my father would have been categorized as a “tactile, kinesthetic” learner.* He seldom cared about his clothes unless he was going to church or a social occasion. He wore rubber boots with the holes repaired with duct tape, torn overalls (until Mother got hold of them to patch them), flannel shirts with frayed necks, and gloves that looked almost as bad as the glove in the photograph below. One can easily detect the commonality with the clothing. Each item felt "broken-in" or comfortable to Dad.

 I recall exclaiming, “Dad! Angie and Ben got you leather gloves for Christmas.” Then I would holler, “Mom, where are Dad’s new gloves?”

With a silly look at me, he would say in a mocking voice, displaying the gloves in question, “Oh these are pity-foul!”

            The irony is that the glove in the photograph is one I have been using this winter! One day last week I came in and as I removed my gloves said to Mother, “These gloves look like the ones Dad wore.” Then I sheepishly murmured, “They look worse than anything he ever wore!”

            Now my glove protocol is a bit different than Dad’s was. I begin with the same brand of leather glove like Dad did. A set of two pairs of Plainsman leather gloves is always on both my Christmas and birthday list. I wear gloves year-round.

The difference comes with my self-prepared liners. I have such small hands that a soft pair of cotton gloves inside the leather pair serves as impeccably soft liners providing the perfect fit.

I remember the first time I met Dr. Marc Campbell, DVM. Fortunately, Angie was at the farm that day helping with Dad’s care. She had tied the calf’s legs together so we could load her in the back of the pickup and get her into a place where Dr. Campbell could treat her. After perfunctory introductions, he said, “Somebody did a good job tying this little heifer!” (Many of Angie’s corporate colleagues have no idea she learned to drive a standard transmission truck loaded with small bales and can successfully complete innumerable other farm-related tasks.)

Dr. Campbell directed his second comment toward me, “I like those gloves.” He proceeded to tell me of one of the first winters after he had come to Pawnee. An older couple, who had raised cattle for many years, called him to assist with the birth of a calf. They observed how cold his hands were. In appreciation for his saving the calf, they gave him his first pair of Plainsman gloves.

I glanced at the gloves that would cause my sister to say, “You got the goody out of them!” How ironic that the gloves I took off looked so much worse than the pair I criticized Dad for wearing!

              Isn’t this how shallow criticism works? We offhandedly give our opinion of how we think a person should change in an area that will have little consequence to life in ten days  - not even considering its meaninglessness in ten years. Most of the time our opinions register as insignificant, except to diminish the worth of another person created in the image of God.
            Is there a place for reproof - Biblical term for criticism? King Solomon, described as the wisest man who ever lived, wrote several verses about reproof. Here are a couple:

Don't waste your time on a scoffer; all you'll get for your pains is abuse. But if you correct those who care about life, that's different - they'll love you for it!  Proverbs 9:8 (The Message)

Moral dropouts won't listen to their elders; welcoming correction is a mark of good sense. Proverbs 15:5 (The Message)

           The scripture indicates there is a time to prayerfully give reproof and a time to accept reproof graciously. Godly reproof results in both people being enriched. The one giving the reproof knows another is being built up by the words spoken. Often the person receiving and accepting the correction will have a life-altering outcome. The key remains knowing when an issue in one's life warrants interjecting a reproof.

           Even though chiding Dad about his well-worn gloves was not mean-spirited, I realize how I have grown – hopefully – in what really matters. I can see God answering my prayer for myself and others each morning. Daily, I pray Paul’s prayer that he prayed for the believers at the church at Philippi as recorded in Philippians 1:9-11. I personalize it as I pray it for myself with my own emphasis indicated:

And I pray this: that your (my) love will keep growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you (I) can determine what really matters and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (HCSB)

*As an educator, I prescribed and tried to implement an understanding of my students’ individual learning modalities, employing that in my classroom instruction. I identified my primary learning modality as “visual” which explains why how the gloves looked spurred me to criticize. Yet, because of my cattle care, the need to utilize tools, etc., I have found myself much more like my father – leaning far more toward the “tactile, kinesthetic” modalities – learning with my muscles and touch.  It is amazing how God brings into our lives duties, challenges, and trials that develop areas of our lives that we had no inkling even existed in us and needed to be cultivated. I feel compelled to share this powerful verse for those who follow Jesus and face responsibilities wrapped in adversity:

Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.  Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV)