Ever felt the urge to confront someone? Perhaps you've been wronged. Perhaps you see another being wronged. Ever follow through and confront someone, only to discover you totally mis-judged a situation, and or, the party involved? If you're anything like me, you feel like dirt. It's kinda like jumping into a mudpuddle and splashing everyone around you. All you can do is say I'm sorry. But often, fall-out follows you. The person you confront tells someone else, and pretty soon the "how-dare-they" emotions erupt within a second, or third or more parties. Within a few hours, you not only feel like dirt--you are dirt among the conversations of man.
By nature I like to give folks the benefit of the doubt. Yet, sometimes, I allow myself the luxury of taking someone at their word and been sorely disappointed. When that occurs, it breeds a kind of skepticism; if I indulge that skepticism, it soon evolves into complete distrust of any party. I hate to hear folks share a bunch of negatives about others, especially when you are not acquainted with others. But anytime one is fed negative stuff about another, it tends to take on a life of its own. It can sit in the back corner of one's mind till another does something similar--then it pounces upon the scene and destroys any chance of building a relationship--or reconciling one.
I'm beginning to believe that jumping to conclusions without all the facts, is a lot like jumping off a cliff without knowing the depth of the water below. Sooner or later, you are bound to get hurt. The only way to avoid becoming one big grease-splat in the scheme of life, is to avoid jumping in the first place. You might disagree and say, the best thing to do is not to listen to someone dump negatives in the first place. I like that, but it is not the norm. Many times you cannot stop a person from unloading their garbage on your front lawn. It just happens. So my advice is not to go picking through another's trash. And if you happen to get slapped with some unwanted garbage, go wash yourself off before trying to make it to the curb.
7"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
9Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:7-10
[NEXT post: BEFORE YOU CONFRONT SOMEONE....] selahV
