Years ago, an older fellow came into my office and began telling me what an awful preacher I was. It was a very difficult speech for me to sit and listen to. I say speech because it was obvious that he had rehearsed it for some time, and he barely took a breath as he laid out all of his issues about my preaching. I couldn’t get a word in, edge-wise, so I just listened and thought, “How am I going to respond to this?” When he finished, I said, “Let me ask you a question: do you think I am doing the best that I can and that I am working hard to write my sermons?” He thought for a moment and said, “Yes, you are probably doing the best that you can.” Then I said, “Do you think that if I keep studying hard and doing the best that I can, I will get better at preaching?” He thought even longer and said, “Yes, you probably will.” I said, “How long do you think it will take before all of the weaknesses in my preaching that you just pointed out will be gone?” He said, “ I don’t know.” I then said, trying to be as gracious as I could, “Do you think that these concerns that you just shared with me will make me a better preacher next week?” He said, “Probably not.” I said, “Would you like to help me improve my preaching?” His response dropped in volume and intensity: “How would I do that?” “Let me suggest three things,” I said. “ First, pray for me every week that God will help me and that He will give me a special anointing when I preach. Second, send me a note each week with one suggestion, only one, based on that week’s sermon, on what I could do to improve my preaching. I won’t respond, but I promise I will read it and consider it. And third, please don’t gossip or slander me to others. That won’t help you or me, and especially won’t help the person you are talking to. He just looked at me for the longest time and then said, “Yes, I will do that.” He then turned around and left. He wrote me a note every week after that, and most were very helpful; then, after about a year, he died of a heart attack. I missed his notes. I wish that I had responded to all my critics over the years as I did him, but I keep working at it, doing the best that I can, and asking God for wisdom.