Judge Not

I remember back in high school our drama/music department put on a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  For anyone who hasn't seen it, it's the story of Joseph of Israel being sold into Egypt and then saving his family from famine as a result.  The show was a huge success in the community.  Because of its success, the administration of the school asked the cast to put on a free show for the school during the school day after the show was supposed to close.  (Or maybe it was the day of their last show?  Some details are fuzzy...)

I remember I was in my keyboarding class when they announced over the intercom that we could all go down to see it.  Most of us had already been, but we weren't about to pass up the opportunity to see it again.  After the show was over, we were to return to the class we came from while they figured out how to rearrange the rest of the day around the lost time.

So I returned to my keyboarding class.  In the class was a girl I had termed as 'hard.'  She was one of the ones who got into drinking back in junior high.  She was one of the ones who appeared to smoke.  She wasn't a 'mean girl' like they have today, but she definitely wasn't soft and innocent.  I had always thought a girl like that would never have anything to do with anything religious.

She was the only one I remember from that keyboarding class that day.  We got back and were talking about the show.  She had never heard the story before.  The majority of the school had at least known the basics of the story.  She'd never had any religion in her home and hadn't been told any of the bible stories as a result.  I remember that she teared while talking about parts of the show.  She had been so touched. 


That stands out in memory because I was so surprised to see her touched by the show enough that she was showing emotion in public.  I realized I had misjudged her.  Who was I to be shocked she could be touched by anything remotely religious?  I didn't know her very well.  I had heard her cuss a few times (badly...) and just assumed she was a certain way.  Whenever I think back on that, I feel bad that I had judged her so harshly.  But I also feel grateful that I was given that opportunity to be shown WHY we are asked not to judge each other.  The Savior said judge not that ye be not judged, and He meant it.  So why do we still judge each other?

Imagine how much our self esteem as a whole society would be lifted if we simply stopped judging each other.  It isn't impossible. Let's all work for it.