PAUSE AND THINK (Vol. 1): BEFORE POINTING THAT FINGER!

Human beings are so fast and active when it comes to playing the blame game. This can even be seen as far back as the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden as recorded in the book of Genesis.

 Most times, we take this route of ‘blame game’ in order to have self-justification about certain issues. Sometimes, we simply run to get the tag ‘blame someone’ to use, as excuses for events we failed to carry out properly or failure(s) that resulted from an activity. You and I have been one way or the other guilty of this.

Furthermore, this article goes beyond pointing your finger to blame someone for failure(s). It also involves pointing a finger of accusation that could turn out false!

‘Pointing the finger’ could also mean being hasty in your judgment of other people. Are you quick in judging others?
 Have you checked yourself properly before doing that? Are you planning to remove the speck in someone’s eyes when you have a beam in yours?

I’m not saying there are times when certain people are not responsible for your inability to do certain things or achieve certain goals. Neither am I concluding entirely that there are zero possibilities of having your ‘accusations’ to be true. All I’m saying is simple! Be sure! The important question now is: How can I be sure? You can be sure only when you ‘PAUSE AND THINK’.

 Hasty decisions and judgments could be risky at such moments. Constructive criticism is by the way different from being highly judgmental. It’s not wrong to correct people when you feel they are wrong.

Before pointing that finger, have you taken out time to pause and think things through?

1.       Are you sure you don’t have a part to play in the issue?

2.       Did you play your part well? (answer in sincerity)

3.       Is there something you failed to do?

4.       What’s your motive behind blaming, judging or accusing the person?

5.       What do you stand to gain by blaming, judging and accusing others?

I’ll like to sight an example from a familiar story, The Parable of the Ten Virgins. There’s something we might have failed to see there. The 5 foolish Virgins could have blamed the Wise ones and labeled them as ‘wicked’ and ‘selfish’. They could have blamed their inability to go with the bridegroom on the failure of the 5 wise virgins to give them oil. They could have done what some of us do in recent times, which is ‘pointing the finger’ but on a closer look, they were responsible! Check yourself first!

Do you know what it feels like to be at the receiving end of false accusations, misjudgments and wrong blames? If you’ve ever been there before, you’ll behave better!

Notwithstanding, it’s a call for us all! Pause and Think!

A Statement like ‘I thought….’ comes up when the result of our blame games, hasty judgments or accusations turns out to take the negative side, that is, proves to be wrong! In the real sense of it, the truth is, they never ‘thought’ in the first place. The key is: Pause and Think!

It’s high time we take responsibility, take a pause and think!   

Volume 2...coming soon..