Legacy Christian Academy: Judgment Report
Our inherit sin nature leads us to be judgmental toward one another. We have all had to face that indescribable dropping feeling in the pit of our stomach when we are openly made fun of in front of a group of people. Legacy Christian Academy has taught me many things not regarding academics, but how I have learned to view others and myself. I realized over the 8 years I have attended Legacy Christian Academy, that everyone around me had similar characterizes and features, but I did not. My peers could not categorize my racial diversity so they placed me in the only category they knew before inquiring any information about me. Starting high school, I thought that all of the judgment I suffered in middle school would be left in the juvenile past of the people around me. However, I did not receive that luxury. Two months into what I thought to be a fresh beginning of high school someone declared me as being “black.” Even after people had gotten to know me, they judged me so heavily on my outer
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appearance and did not focus on my character. I was sitting at one of the lunch tables in the commons talking, before the first period bell rang, with one of my “best- friends” and her boyfriend Tommy. Everything was normal and the conversation was flowing. “What time does the foot-,” I tried to say but was abruptly cut off.
Tommy had grabbed my arm and compared to his skin color and shouted, ”You're black look at your arm compared to mine.” “I am not black,” I laughed. He proceeded to tell me, “You’re delusional Arabella, face the facts and get over yourself.” I turned to my “best-friend” who was giggling as if what he said was funny. The atmosphere immediately changed. The way Tommy had looked at me, it made me feel like I had done something wrong for appearing different. My heart started to rapidly beat and then it felt like it had hit the floor. I felt a sense of humiliation. I didn’t know what more I could do or show him that I was a sincere and good hearted person. He just immediately jumped to the collusion of my outer appearance so abruptly and did not ask about my racial heritage. I waited for a moment before I went to the bathroom and cried. I cried because Tommy instilled a stabbing feeling in my heart with the notion, of me believing, that I was unlikable and unlovable. Nevertheless, later that year another event happened, at snack break. Like usual everyone was around the very crowded lunchroom, talking and snacking. “Oh my goodness, I can not dance to save my life,” I said to my friend, Amanda. “Haha, me too,” she replied. “That’s weird,” cut in Lenton Dean out of no -where. “Why,” I responded to him. “Aren’t Black people supposed to be able to dance?” Lenton answered “You’re so dumb! I’m clearly not black,” I said back. “Your curly hair is an example (as he touched it),” he answered. Lenton was not in our conversation; he had jumped in out of nowhere. My hands started to feel clammy. My stomach felt as if it was doing back flips. I did not know this young man well enough for him to directly stereotype me, yet he was so compelled to make me feel extremely uncomfortable. It had gotten to the point of the year where people knew that when someone would call me “black” it made me visibly upset. That is why I think people thought it was funny to call me it and get a rise out of me. Trust me, I have nothing against the black race, it just frustrated me that people were so quick to judge me and due to their closed minded thinking mentalities, they placed me in the only category they knew. Nonetheless, these two events were major turning points in how I now live my day-to-day life.
Romans 2: 1-3 relates perfectly to all the overwhelming emotions going through me, “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?” I used to dig on people constantly about the dumbest things regarding their appearances and their personalities. Although I would never have the courage to tell them to their faces what I actually thought of them, what if I had? What if I told them all the mean and hateful things I gossiped behind their backs and thought in my head? Those were the hard questions God placed in my head over the next few
months.
Although I thought of Tommy and Lenton as monsters, I was just as bad as them. I have no right to judge others because I am not perfect. After realizing this, I feel sorry for the people who have judged others and myself so openly and resent our unusual appearances and indifferences because they have not seen the epiphany that God has placed in my life.
Furthermore, I had the realization that I was so hard on people and their imperfections because of what society has placed of what is “normal.” At the end of the day God created everyone to be different, yet at the same time to resemble his image. We see this in Genesis 1:27: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Therefore we should cease to judge people so quickly due to God making all of us all in his image, but just with different strong suites.
appearance and did not focus on my character. I was sitting at one of the lunch tables in the commons talking, before the first period bell rang, with one of my “best- friends” and her boyfriend Tommy. Everything was normal and the conversation was flowing. “What time does the foot-,” I tried to say but was abruptly cut off.
Tommy had grabbed my arm and compared to his skin color and shouted, ”You're black look at your arm compared to mine.” “I am not black,” I laughed. He proceeded to tell me, “You’re delusional Arabella, face the facts and get over yourself.” I turned to my “best-friend” who was giggling as if what he said was funny. The atmosphere immediately changed. The way Tommy had looked at me, it made me feel like I had done something wrong for appearing different. My heart started to rapidly beat and then it felt like it had hit the floor. I felt a sense of humiliation. I didn’t know what more I could do or show him that I was a sincere and good hearted person. He just immediately jumped to the collusion of my outer appearance so abruptly and did not ask about my racial heritage. I waited for a moment before I went to the bathroom and cried. I cried because Tommy instilled a stabbing feeling in my heart with the notion, of me believing, that I was unlikable and unlovable. Nevertheless, later that year another event happened, at snack break. Like usual everyone was around the very crowded lunchroom, talking and snacking. “Oh my goodness, I can not dance to save my life,” I said to my friend, Amanda. “Haha, me too,” she replied. “That’s weird,” cut in Lenton Dean out of no -where. “Why,” I responded to him. “Aren’t Black people supposed to be able to dance?” Lenton answered “You’re so dumb! I’m clearly not black,” I said back. “Your curly hair is an example (as he touched it),” he answered. Lenton was not in our conversation; he had jumped in out of nowhere. My hands started to feel clammy. My stomach felt as if it was doing back flips. I did not know this young man well enough for him to directly stereotype me, yet he was so compelled to make me feel extremely uncomfortable. It had gotten to the point of the year where people knew that when someone would call me “black” it made me visibly upset. That is why I think people thought it was funny to call me it and get a rise out of me. Trust me, I have nothing against the black race, it just frustrated me that people were so quick to judge me and due to their closed minded thinking mentalities, they placed me in the only category they knew. Nonetheless, these two events were major turning points in how I now live my day-to-day life.
Romans 2: 1-3 relates perfectly to all the overwhelming emotions going through me, “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?” I used to dig on people constantly about the dumbest things regarding their appearances and their personalities. Although I would never have the courage to tell them to their faces what I actually thought of them, what if I had? What if I told them all the mean and hateful things I gossiped behind their backs and thought in my head? Those were the hard questions God placed in my head over the next few
months.
Although I thought of Tommy and Lenton as monsters, I was just as bad as them. I have no right to judge others because I am not perfect. After realizing this, I feel sorry for the people who have judged others and myself so openly and resent our unusual appearances and indifferences because they have not seen the epiphany that God has placed in my life.
Furthermore, I had the realization that I was so hard on people and their imperfections because of what society has placed of what is “normal.” At the end of the day God created everyone to be different, yet at the same time to resemble his image. We see this in Genesis 1:27: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Therefore we should cease to judge people so quickly due to God making all of us all in his image, but just with different strong suites.