Every single one of us is guilty of it. We have all made comments or remarks thinking we know what we are talking about when, really, we don’t have a clue. Let me give you some examples.

When I was the ripe old age of 20 straight out of college, I had an interview with a company and they were going to pay around $24,000/yr starting out. As someone who had not experienced too much “real life” yet, that sounded like a lot of money and a great starting salary. I mean, it should be easy to live off $2000 per month, right? Ha! I remember standing in my parent’s kitchen and my mom trying to help me understand that by the time I payed for insurance (no, I was not one of those kids who stayed on my parent’s insurance until I was 50) and taxes there wouldn’t be a whole lot to live on. You know, I actually tried to argue with her about that (sorry about that Mom). Boy was I ignorant to how life works. Thank goodness that job didn’t work out and I got a different one that paid a little better.  Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know until you experience a little bit of life.

Rewind a little further. Before I graduated college and my older sister had her first kid, and then a while later her second kid. As a teenager with all the freedom in the world and no kids, I sure became an expert in my own mind on being a parent. I remember little things that I would think how differently I would do them. I would see other people who maybe had a kid having a meltdown in a grocery store, and would think to myself “get your kid under control” or “if that was my kid I’d……”. Oh boy, was I naive! What a humbling experience having three kids of my own has been.

Now fast forward to my first teaching job: substitute teacher. It’s amazing how much of an amazing teacher you can be in your own mind when you have absolutely no lesson planning or accountability. Oh, and not to mention all the opinions you can form in a teachers’ lounge about how the administrators do their jobs. When you are a person of low information like I was (simply meaning I had not experienced much of what goes into being a full time teacher yet) , you can easily think you know it all. My how life changed when I got a little experience and eventually became a lead teacher myself. Oh, and being married to a principal has vastly changed my view of administration, there are so many things that go on behind the scenes that even the most experienced teachers don’t know goes on (many of which I even have no clue about).

It is so easy to make opinions and pass judgements. As a matter of fact, that can often be easier than getting the real information and having compassion for others. As the saying goes; Ignorance is bliss. But is it really? In my opinion, Ignorance is Ignorance. When someone who is not knowledgeable about something, tries to input their thoughts, they really just end up sounding unintelligent (and let’s just get real for a second, we ALL do this from time to time). I think we could all learn from that. Especially when it comes to our opinions of others. We don’t know the backstory of most of the people we encounter. All we know is often only what we see, which is easy to misinterpret. I love how The Living Bible translation puts 1 Corinthians 13:7, ^“If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.” The older I get the more this verse means to me. I see the value of loyalty. I see it in my marriage. I see it in my relationships. And I see it in my job. I even see it in my role as a mom. I want so desperately for others, especially those closest to me, to believe the best about my intentions, why would I not do the same for them? The world could use a little more of that. Imagine how different our lives would be if we all extended the same grace to other people that we expect and demand from them?

“Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. ¹⁵ Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.¹⁶ He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

Ephesians 4:14-16 NLT