The story is told about an army inspection that was being conducted by a full colonel. The review was going well until the officer came to a young recruit. The colonel looked him up and down and snapped, “Button that pocket, soldier!”

The rattled young soldier said, “R...R…Right now, sir?”

“Of course, right now!” roared the colonel.

At that point the soldier reached out very carefully and buttoned the flap on the colonel’s shirt pocket.

For some reason, all of us can be like that colonel. He was quick to detect the soldier’s uniform problem, but hadn’t noticed his own. The faults of others stick out like a sore thumb but our own are often hard to spot.

Let’s make it our goal not to focus on the faults of others but instead take up arms to battle our own.