I enjoy going to the movies and reading books. I like to talk about both with my friends. I will often ask their opinions on what they have read or watched. Recently, I read a review of a movie that I had just watched. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie critics gave the movie a poor review, but audiences loved it. This is why I usually don’t look up reviews online, because I don’t like what most critics have to say.
In their attempt to show off their “superior” knowledge of movies and the art of moviemaking, critics will condemn plots with happy endings, the only kind I like, as simplistic or fantasy or unrealistic. The negative comments of media critics are not helpful or encouraging to the creators of the works, nor are they particularly inspiring. They are condescending in an attempt to make the critics look more important than they are.
People face all kinds of criticism on a daily basis. Some critical comments come from other people who don’t like the opinions, looks, or actions of people around them. I have done my fair share of judging and criticizing others. But, I have not ever told another person the negative, nasty, hateful things that I have told myself.
I find faults with myself that I will quickly excuse in others. I will obsess over every thought, spoken word, or action that I do. In fact, I will go over what I have done with a metaphorical fine tooth comb dissecting and finding fault. There’s a reason it’s called nit picking. It’s very much like combing the hair of a child exposed to lice.
People are born with an inner critic. Unfortunately, it’s natural to beat up ourselves, especially when we are teenagers, and find lots of faults with ourselves. The voice of the inner critic is loud, sharp, and painful. It often drowns out the compliments of others.
The inner critic will say things like, “If they only knew what I knew about you, your friends would not like you.” Another popular message that the inner critic will say is, “Of course your family says nice things about you, but nobody else says them.” The inner critic will condemn what we wear, what we eat, our appearance, what we choose to do for fun, and the list goes on and on.
The inner critic also questions us. It may say, “Who do you think you are?” Another question it may ask is, “What makes you so special?” The question I hear most often is, “What did you do to deserve this mess you have made of your life or cause these bad things to happen?”
Questions are not bad things to ask. As children we’re told that the only way to learn something is to ask questions. During the late sixties and early seventies, people were told to question injustice. The questions the inner critic asks, though, are not questions designed to give us understanding or right societal wrongs. They are questions designed to confuse or condemn.
One such inner critic that asks questions shows up in one of the oldest and most translated pieces of literature in the world. But, the inner critic is not identified as an inner critic. In the story, a serpent, or perhaps a snake, takes on the role of critic. As the story goes, this being asks a woman, “Did God really say,’You are not to eat from any tree in the garden’?” In other ancient texts, this inner critic is called an accuser or deceiver. Whatever the name, the inner critic is a liar that hates good and seeks to make themself more important than the One who created the galaxies and everything in them. When it failed to do that, this being went after the beloved creation of the Creator, seeking to destroy the relationship between the two.
Since the enemy is a liar and there is no truth in him, it is not a stretch to say that our inner critics lie 100% of the time. Sometimes the inner critic will speak in half-truths. But, a half-truth is still a lie. Listening to the inner critic will cause people to act by accepting lies as facts. This can lead to disaster.
The best way to silence liars is to tell the truth. Liars are always found out and truth is revealed. When children lie to get out of trouble, the deception is exposed because it cannot stand up to the truth, just like the deceiver is no match for the Creator.
Truth is found in the words of the Creator. The Creator inspired certain numbers of His creation to write words of Truth. Some words of Truth that I like to use to silence my inner critic are in the image below. They remind me and my critic that my Creator fashioned me and that I am to praise my Creator and ignore my critic.
Journey with Monica 