Suspend Judgement.....

As a wise person told me, there are three sides to every story "yours, mine and the truth."  When we see only one side of the story we only see our perception of the truth.  One thing I often teach, is that we need to be willing to suspend our judgement to listen to the other side of the story.

We base "our truth" on the experiences that we have or by the information that we hear from the other side of the story.

Recently there has been controversy over the Furgeson case.  Everyone has an opinion about this and most likely our opinion is based on what our experiences are.  If you relate more to the young man that was shot, that is based on your experiences.  If you relate more with the cop, that is based on your experiences as well.

This blog is about suspending judgement until we get both sides of the story.  My challenge to you is that before jumping to conclusions about a situation, consider what we just may not know.

A quote that I once heard is that "we don't know what we don't know."  The question is are we willing to find out?  Can we listen without taking things personally?  Can we listen without letting our views and experiences cloud our ability to suspend judgement.

We all have reasons as to why we do what we do, even if others do not understand why.  We may be willing to share, but is the other person willing to listen?

We live in a world with differences of opinions, differences in thought and differences in expectations.  That is what makes us beautiful.  Our differences make us beautiful.  However these differences can divide us.

We have a tendency to take things personally (we are human).  What if we lived in a world where we could truly "agree to disagree?"  Many times we say that we can agree to disagree, however do we truly believe it?  Our strong personal feelings and expectations of others can create a clouded view.  Our glasses can be so fogged up with our own perceptions that we are unwilling to even consider anything else.

When we can suspend judgement and listen to the other side of the story, that is where we can find peace and where we can love each other as we were called to do.

This is not to say that we abandon our beliefs or experiences.  No matter what we will have those beliefs and experiences.  I have a dear friend that shares different views on a few different topics.  I respect her thoughts and opinions.  We don't get emotionally charged about our differences.  Instead we focus on what we have in common.  What we have in common is so much more important than what we differ on.

Focus on your likeness with others instead of your differences.  I am challenging you to think about this during the week.