Assume is one of those hard words that leaves us believing we know for sure when the truth is we haven’t investigated enough to know. Sure there are things in life that we have to take at face value and move on. There are even things that we are not interested in learning about because it is not something we need to or want to understand completely. For instance, I don’t need to know how a carburetor works. I just need to know that it works so my car can take me where I need to go.
The tricky thing is in relationships when we assume that we know the motives or intentions of someone else without clarifying. That is when we can damage one another because we don’t directly check the facts, feelings, and heart of an interaction. Some of us can get a feeling of abandonment if a text is not returned or a gift is not acknowledged. It is taken as a snub or insult that the receiver didn’t care or perhaps even was angry. The truth could be that the intention was to reach out but life happened and the moment passed. Of course, we should acknowledge one another but if we don’t it might just be that life intruded on the response and then we simply forgot. Heck, I have even thought I did respond since I intended to and only learned that I didn’t when asked about it. Rather than being offended why don’t we just ask the other person if everything is okay. You may find that they are going through something that you can help with or at least pray about.
There are so many synonyms for assuming but the bottom line is communication to avoid hurt feelings or misunderstanding. The truth is life is overflowing and we don’t catch everything. So just ask, talk, sit down and chat rather than writing the story with only your viewpoint. I don’t know about you but I am often wrong in my outlook. Only after gathering more intel or letting something sink in do I get a better picture of the truth.
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