Pray fervently for the blessing of being able to stand back and view yourself objectively and dispassionately: to see all your uglinesses and weaknesses, failures and limitations. They are you, and they call for action, like typhoid fever would call for action. These are you now, but they need not be you eternally: they DARE not be you permanently. They must be faced and dealt with before it is too late. This is our principal and over-riding responsibility and task in this life. It is a full time, full effort task. The faculty of self-examination is a marvelous gift of God -- the key to life -- but it is so tremendously unused and unappreciated. Very few realize the urgency and magnitude of the task of self-transformation. Most critical evaluation is directed outward to others. How universal is the tendency to criticize others! How rare the tendency to critically and consistently and EFFECTUALLY criticize ourselves! What rationalizations! What lame and transparent excuses! What unworthy self-justification! God give us self-discernment and self-honesty!

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