1 Samuel 12:3 (NKJV)
“Here I am. Witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed: Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken, or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed, or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.”

One acid test of the pilgrim life is our willingness to let others scrutinize us. Because we cannot see everything about our lives, we need to be open for others to evaluate us. Self-evaluation, however, should precede public evaluation. When you self-evaluate, you give yourself a chance to make the corrections needed to save face when public evaluation happens.

Self-evaluation includes God-evaluation. One discipline we must not lose is the discipline of sitting quietly before God for Him to evaluate us. When God okays a life, that life is okay. I must confess, however, that most times, God shows me areas of my life needing improvement, before He okays me. But that’s good. Having God evaluate you is part of authentic self-evaluation.

After having done his self-evaluation, Samuel was bold to ask the people to evaluate him. He asked them to, “Witness against (him) before the Lord.” Because he knew he had sorted things out with God, he was not afraid to call for this public evaluation. That’s the key.

Some people get offended when public evaluation is not charitable; and understandably so. It’s hard on our emotions when people point out areas where we failed, or we could have done better. However, accepting criticism is part of the process leading to growth.

Remember, some critics may be very uncharitable about it, but don’t let that bother you. What really matters is whether their verdict is true or not. If you honestly review their criticisms before God, and you discover they are not true, simply throw them away. But if they are true, accept them, work on them, and grow by them.

Although we don’t see everything about lives, let’s pursue the highlands of authentic living. Integrity demands that we constantly check to see how we are doing. Never get used to living without regular evaluation. In fact, the authentic believer surrounds himself with people who are unafraid to give him honest feedback about his life. Pursue authenticity by pursuing regular personal evaluations.