Are You Wise Enough To Take Criticism Like This?

Charles Spurgeon, in Lectures to My Students, writes about preachers and the way they should get feedback on their preaching. But his advice does not just pertain to preachers (p. 14o-141):

Get a friend to tell you your faults, or better still, welcome an enemy who will watch you keenly and sting you savagely. What a blessing an irritating critic will be to a wise man, what an intolerable nuisance to a fool!

Of course you must be careful not to give too much power to complainers, but just because they are complainers does not mean they do not speak some truth.