“I just tell it like it is” I would oft say with pride,
When others around me started to slide.
I was always the first to level the blame
And lay before others the story of shame.

I remember the time where a fellow servant of mine
At a time of great stress, in anger crossed the line.
I told everyone the flaws he had shown,
How he could not be trusted for his stack he had blown.

Then there was the time where a new sister slipped,
Committing a sin as over a stumbling-block she tripped.
It was not that she did not love her God,
But only through ignorance that path she had trod.

But I with great bombast proclaimed before all
The shame and indiscretion that brought forth her fall.
I brought her to shame before all that did count
And showed her we all knew she would give account.

However, the day came when it was my turn.
I made the mistake and I knew it would burn.
I knew how others would respond to my plight,
Because I had done the same and it left me in fright.

I never would have thought to receive the reaction
That my brothers and sisters returned for my actions.
Instead of returning my own spite to me,
With love and compassion they set me free.

Their reaction to me caused more shame than the error,
For I had so often rebuked them with furor.
When I made the mistake I forevermore found
That life is incomplete until mercy and truth abound.

Let us always remember the values of right,
To show love and compassion, whatever the fight.
Our job is not to show ourselves better than others,
But with mercy and truth to lift up our brothers.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.(Galatians 6:1-2)