Jumping To Conclusions
By: Chels
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“Slow down; hasty conclusions never help anyone.”
Chels and jumping to conclusions go together like 5 and 6, and the amusing part is that it’s usually over the most trivial matters that, in reality, shouldn’t bother me. There are tons of backstories, but I will share the one that made me realize I needed to write this newsletter. I was at the office when a colleague and friend greeted everyone but skipped me, heading straight back to her seat. In my head, I immediately wondered, “Why didn’t she greet me? Did she not see me?”
Before I could fully indulge in these thoughts, she messaged me, explaining that she intended to greet me but wanted to avoid a certain someone. This moment was God highlighting the folly of my hasty assumptions. He consistently intervenes every time I leap to conclusions about a person or a sequence of events, preventing me from dwelling on those opinions and immediately offering a counter-narrative.
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Through this experience, God has imparted two crucial lessons about myself:
· I tend to be overly judgmental.
· I struggle to extend grace to others.
It was quite eye-opening, jarring, and humbling to see myself in this light, and I appreciate God’s kindness in ensuring these thoughts remain in my head rather than being vocalized. Just imagine the awkward conversations and subsequent explanations that might have ensued otherwise.
But the lesson is clear: seek clarifications, ask questions, embrace open and honest communication, slow down, don’t overthink things (especially as a recovering overthinker), resist the urge to hastily jump to conclusions, and above all, extend grace to people. Everyone is dealing with their own challenges, and recognizing that you are not infallible makes it easier to extend understanding to others.
It’s not always easy, but with conscious effort, we can become more patient, understanding, and gracious individuals. Moreover, this journey of self-improvement is continuous. Every time I find myself slipping back into old habits, I remind myself of that office incident and the lesson it taught me. This helps me pause and reassess my initial reactions, ensuring that I approach situations with a more balanced perspective, yet sometimes I still jump to conclusions.
But by sharing these experiences and reflections, I hope to encourage others to look within and identify areas where they might be too quick to judge or slow to forgive. So, let’s commit to doing better this year.
Originally published at https://crazyinsights.substack.com.
