Don’t be so quick to Judge

I ran across an article the other day that showed several movies that people thought would be a flop but really turned out to be a fantastic movie after all. 

I thought the article was interesting because many of the movies that were listed are some of my favorite movies I like to watch. If you want to read the article your self just follow this link.

As I thought about this article it got me thinking about how sometimes we can be so quick to judge something before we even look into it our selves. We seem to be so quick to believe the worst in people, before hearing them out first. So quick to jump to conclusions before ever getting to the truth or getting all of the facts.

Look at what the Bible says about this: 

“He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”-(Prov 18:13)

I don't know about you but I can safely say that I have experienced that passage more times than I would like to admit. So many times in my life I had mad a rash judgment about something, and said things without knowing all the facts. Then days or weeks later I realize (after having all the facts) that it was not how I thought it was at all. Then I wind up eating crow for the next several days and apologizing for my actions or words.  That is why the writer in Proverbs says "it is folly and shame unto him".

   So how can we avoid this folly, and how can we avoid being ashamed for our poor misinformed actions and words. Well speaking as one who has fallen into this folly my self let me give you a few thoughts on how we might avoid this problem in the future. 

1.         Be Patient

    I know that the word patience  should be labeled as a curse word, and I hate it as much as anyone. However I think a lot of us jump to conclusions and arrive at decisions because we rather not wait for all the facts to come out. You see sometimes, many times it takes a little bit of time to get all the facts to come out on any given matter.  It is far easier to take in what we know now and then form our own judgments. However If we will take the time to wait and listen to all the facts, hear from everyone, it may help us to see the situation a little more clearly and arrive at a more well informed conclusion. 

2.        Believe the Best

    You know what they say "bad news travel's faster than good news".  Lets be honest we kind of enjoy hearing the bad news more than the good news. This is why when a celebrity is going through a divorce, or going through a drug rehab program that gets front page news. However a celebrity who gives money to some sort of charity it does not have the same kind of appeal, so you end up finding that story on page 15 instead of on the front page. 

    I think this is one of the reasons why we jump to conclusions. Instead of reserving our judgment, we often want to believe the worst. Instead of believing the best in someone we think they don't have the best of intentions. Instead of believing that the situation is not as bleak as it may appear, we become like chicken little yelling that the sky is falling. 

3.        Don't be Driven by Emotion

    Emotions can cause us to see things that are not there. It can causes to respond to ordinary things in extraordinary ways. For example, think about those Haunted houses that come popping up every October.  We know going in there that everything in that Haunted house is all there to make us scared. If one would just simply turn on the lights you would see the hallways, the paint, the individual's dressed up as a crazy doctor, zombie, vampire or a warewolf. Just turn off the lights, turn on the strobe lights, throw in some screams and some scary music and bam your emotions take over. 

    Our emotions can fuel our perception's of individual's and situations. They can cause us to overlook or ignore facts. When we let our Emotions to run we can then make rash judgments that are not quite fare, or even worse out right false. 

So maybe just maybe when we hear some bad news, or we happen to hear about what someone said or did. Instead of jumping to conclusions and making our own snap judgement. Instead lets be patient and wait for all the facts to come out, lets try to believe the best in people and try not to assume the worst, and lets try not to allow our emotions to overshadow our sensibilities. So maybe just maybe we can avoid the folly of making a rash judgement in the future.