Opinionated Me

I am discovering that at every stage in life, other people will have an opinion.

Whether it is being single, dating, getting married, changing jobs, moving house, having a baby, not having a baby... without fail people will step forward ever so quickly to put in their two cents worth.

This is not to say that they have evil intent, because 99.9% of the time, their intentions are totally out of concern and with a desire to be good friends.

But that still doesn’t mean it’s helpful.

A week ago I was texting back and forth with my Mum about a certain issue she’s currently dealing with. Without even thinking about it, I automatically went into problem solving mode and started suggesting this option or that solution.

And then I stopped... 

How full of pride am I, to think that I am in a position to tell her what to do in her life? She has 20 years on me, an awful lot more life experience, and is quite capable of coming up with solutions herself.

The arrogance!

Now, age and life experience does not always equal to maturity and wisdom. This is true. But how did I jump on the band wagon of thinking I am the advisor to the world at large?

I think that we have created a whole system in society where we feel we have the ‘right’ to tell people exactly what we think. Freedom of speech has created a whole generation of opinionated experts.

Having said that, I know some incredibly godly men and women who speak truth and love into my life with such grace and humility that it doesn’t even feel like an opinion, but more like a conversation.

I think that most of the time, people don’t need solutions and are quite capable of fixing their own problems. What they really need is someone to listen and to really hear. Someone to care about what they are saying and how they are feeling.

Oh God! Help me to be so quick to listen and slow to advise. 




"Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact."
- George Eliot (1819-1880)