“I Judge Better Things of You”

Mormon taught an important principle to a congregation gathered in a synagogue: Miracles follow faith. Therefore, if you aren’t experiencing miracles, the root cause may be a lack of faith. (See Moroni 7:35-38.) But he immediately offered words of reassurance to his listeners, who might have been tempted to blame themselves for their difficult circumstances:

But behold, my beloved brethren, I judge better things of you, for I judge that ye have faith in Christ because of your meekness.

Moroni 7:39

I like that phrase: “I judge better things of you.” It’s particularly impactful because Mormon spent the first part of his sermon teaching the people how to judge between good and evil, including echoing the following words from the Sermon on the Mount: “With that same judgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged” (Moroni 7:18; see also 3 Nephi 14:2, Matthew 7:2). If we judge harshly, we can expect to be judged harshly, so why wouldn’t we look for the best in other people?

In his epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle Paul follows a similar rhetorical pattern. After describing the sad state of people who have “tasted of the heavenly gift” and afterwards “fallen away,” he adds:

But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation,

Hebrews 6:9

Surely Mormon’s people needed encouragement. After all, they lived in a time of war and of crumbling institutions, when people’s hearts were filled with vengeance and violence. (See Mormon 2:8, Mormon 3:9-10, Mormon 4:11.) These “peaceable followers of Christ” (Moroni 7:3-4) must have felt tremendous sorrow, as Mormon did, for the degradation of their society. (See Mormon 6:16-20, Moroni 9:18-19.) It must have been a great comfort to hear that Mormon saw their meekness and concluded that they had faith!

Elder David A. Bednar has taught that God can help us see the good in other people. (See “Quick to Observe,,” Brigham Young University Devotional Address, 10 May 2005.) President Russell M. Nelson said, “‘If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy’ that we can say about another person—whether to his face or behind her back—that should be our standard of communication.” He added the people who have the gift of charity “do not think evil of others” (“Peacemakers Needed,” General Conference, April 2023, italics in original).

I recently read about Abraham Lincoln’s approach to reviewing court-martials. His secretary, John Hay, marveled “at the eagerness with which the President caught at any fact which would justify him in saving the life of a condemned soldier” (Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals, 539; see also page 671). What if we adopted a similar approach in our judgments of one another, looking diligently for facts that would justify our praise instead of gravitating to mistakes and weaknesses that are easy to detect and criticize?

Today, I will judge better things of the people around me. I will seek God’s help to recognize and accentuate positive attributes and accomplishments in others.