Being able to receive correction is key to being a mature man.
I don’t like being corrected or criticized in any way, shape or form. Do you?
I’ve actually never met anyone who welcomed it naturally. It strikes at our pride and evokes a defense mechanism inside of us. However…
If you want to grow up on the inside—and I do like that thought—then you have to get more comfortable with correction.
In the middle of all of Job’s suffering, he managed to come upon a moment of clarity and declared,
Consider the joy of those corrected by God! Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty when you sin. For though he wounds, he also bandages. He strikes, but his hands also heal. – Job 5:17-18 NLT
What Makes a Mature Man?
When I was a kid, I didn’t get it.
This is going to hurt you more than it’s going to hurt me?
And now, I’m a parent. And I soooo get it. But I still struggle daily with correction and constructive criticism when it comes. Let me make one caveat—there are people who criticize you, not out of love, but out of a subconscious desire to mark you as beneath themselves. Their criticism flows from an unhealthy, broken place that lashes out in hidden pain.
Let that stuff go. Ignore it. Walk away. Let it roll off your back.
And then there are people who truly love us and want to help us grow. They offer correction, not for our harm but for our growth.
