Errors of Understanding

Often we presume to know other men’s hearts and minds and motives, and to condemn and to condone. And perhaps we are often right in our appraisal of other people. But we cannot be certain of all that moves other men. And as we judge others (which in some ways we have to do, and which in other ways we have no right to do), we shall find, as time uncovers further facts, that we have misjudged many men in many ways.

Sometimes when we have assumed they were deceiving us, we shall find that they were telling the truth. And sometimes when we have accepted what they said we shall find that we have been deceived.

Sometimes when we have thought that they were exaggerating and ailment of and illness—that they could do more than they were doing—the future may show us that they were doing the best they could; and that others who we thought were lifting a full load could have done much more.

Often also we fail to understand other men’s fears because their fears are not out fears. We judge them by what we know, not by what they know. It is sometimes difficult for someone who hasn’t been through something to understand someone who has.

Some of us sometimes even forget when we were children and forget why we did what we did. But hope that the Father of us all will not forget why we do some of the things we do, for there is nothing more sure than that we shall all someday be called to account for what we have done with what we have had.

And in the mean time—beyond the necessity of enforcing the law and beyond the minimum that we must judge, “Let us,” as Paul said, “not…judge one another any more”—for we simply do not know enough to appraise other people in all that is held in their hearts, and in all that has done into their making.

The longer we live, the more we find in the hearts and lives of others, things we weren’t aware of. And the more we judge, the more we find that we have misjudged many men.