Read
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
Matthew 7:3
Reflect
We can learn a lot from birds.
If you’ve ever driven on a road trip, you’ve undoubtedly seen buzzards circling in the sky over their next meal. It’s not unusual to see one or more of these birds picking at the carcass of a dead animal in the middle of or on the side of the road. Buzzards are drawn to what is dead or dying. They scan the landscape looking for the casualties of life.
Growing up, I was always fascinated by another bird. My grandmother always had bright red feeders hanging from her back porch, each one filled with equally bright red sugar water. Those feeders attracted the most beautiful hummingbirds, always darting from flower to feeder in search of something sweet.
Both birds tend to find what they’re looking for — dead meat or sweet nectar. People aren’t all that different. We also tend to notice what we’re looking for.
Jesus warned about that tendency when He asked why we can so easily spot the speck in someone else’s eye while overlooking the log in our own. A critical spirit can circle another person’s life looking for old wounds, failures, faults and things that are broken. It becomes remarkably good at finding them.
The Holy Spirit works differently. He certainly reveals sin and calls us to repentance, but He doesn’t expose what is wrong simply so that we can condemn it. He brings truth so that He can redeem, restore and transform.
That difference matters in every relationship — in church, in marriage, in families and in business. We can circle in criticism, looking for the next thing someone has done wrong, or we can approach people in love, looking for what God may be doing in them. One searches for something to pick apart. The other looks for something God can nurture and restore.
And before we decide which people around us are the buzzards and which are the hummingbirds, perhaps Jesus would have us ask a more uncomfortable question: Which one am I becoming?
As you go through your day, don’t allow a critical spirit to determine what you see in the people around you. Stay close to the Lord. Ask Him to show you the log in your own eye before you become preoccupied with someone else’s speck, and allow the Holy Spirit to shape not only what you see, but how you respond to it.
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Reflection copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt and Charles Fulton.
