Whether smoking, cheating, lying, or worrying, we all have something we're struggling with says Paul Poulton, and this knowledge should lead us to judge others more kindly.

For someone else their 'something' may be worry, anxiety or unease, or perhaps an overactive interest in comfort eating.

We all have 'something'.

Solomon said, "Whatever prayer is made by any man, each knowing the plague of his own heart, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive (1 Kings 8:38-39).

Knowing the plague of our own hearts is an important step.

In order to conceptualise our shortcomings early theologians named seven sins as cardinal sins.

That does not mean there are only seven sins that bother us all; they are numbered as seven because many other sins emerge from each of the seven. Murder, for instance, is not one of the seven because murder can be the result of wrath, which is one of the seven.

Whether those early theologians were correct or not, there does appear to be a very long list of 'somethings' in human beings' lives that can afflict us.

I find it easy to judge people whose spot or blemish is different to mine, but perhaps that's what Jesus spoke of when he said, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged" (Matthew 7:1-2).

We all have something, but that doesn't mean we ought to overlook the consequences of someone's blemish. Criminal courts are there for a good reason and sometimes cheaters end up behind bars, but Jesus reminds human beings that we all have something so let us not think we are a 'cut above' other people simply because our spot and blemish is different to theirs.

I don't smoke, so it's easy for me to want to take the speck of sawdust out of my smoking brother's eye, while paying no attention to the plank in my own eye. I have my own mark.

Some years ago I went into the Birmingham Town Hall (UK) and saw Barry McGuire singing. He didn't sing 'California Dreamin', but he did apologise to someone from the stage. He told us that he had said something hurtful to a guy from the audience with whom he'd been talking before the show began. Into the microphone Barry said, "Hey man, please forgive me, I'm sorry for that thing I said to you earlier." Then he mumbled something about wanting God to take sarcasm away from him.

Because we've 'all got something' I understand why we pray "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."