A prayer to help overcome judging people at first sight

If you struggle with making snap judgements, try turning to God with this prayer.

When we notice someone, either a friend, family member, someone we encounter on social media, or someone we don’t know at all, it’s easy to make an immediate judgment. Somehow we tend to think we know all the details and begin to assume the worst.

It is one of the most difficult habits to stop, and for many of us it will be a struggle we fight against for the rest of our lives. However, one key in breaking the habit is to make a firm purpose of amendment. We must freely choose to stop our snap judgments and to think better of other people, especially when we barely know the details.

Here is a prayer attributed to Thomas Kempis that asks for God’s help in overcoming this tendency to judge others by what we see.

Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know,To love what I ought to love,To praise what delights Thee most,To value what is precious in Thy sight,To hate what is offensive to Thee.Do not suffer me to judge according to the sight of my eyes,Nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant men;But to discern with a true judgment between things visible and spiritual,And above all, always to inquire what is the good pleasure of Thy will. Amen.

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