Correcting Ourselves First

We are all sinners. We all fall short of the mark.

This is something to think about whenever we get angry at someone. All of us make mistakes day after day. No one is perfect. Many of us aren’t close and some try not to be.

There are times during the day when something goes wrong in our lives. It may be at home. It may be on the road. It may be in the work environment. It could be anywhere at any time. We could be at fault or someone else.

Often when someone makes a mistake, we chastise them without thinking. Often, we do it in a cruel way. And often we have made the same mistake at one time or another. Our memory gets clouded, and we forget how we felt in the same situation.

Before we correct others, we must correct ourselves.

So, what can we do if someone makes a mistake that affects us?

The first thing we can do is try to put ourselves in the other person's shoes. How would we feel if we made the same mistake? How would we want others to act towards us? One thing that we should consider is what kind of day the person who made the mistake is having or what is going on in their lives. Often mistakes are made because of distractions or some hurt we may feel in our lives.

Then we need to think “Have we made the same mistake? Or a worse mistake?”

When it comes to, say, driving many of us have. We forget about the time we cut someone off in traffic when someone does it to us. We forget about the time we may have rear-ended someone when it happens to us. Looking back on things that have happened in our life can help us to be more forgiving when things happen to us.

Then we must accept that the mistake has been made and move on. If we see when it happens and who made it, we can talk about it and straighten things out. Even in heated situations when the person is not agreeable to admitting a mistake or repentant for doing it. If we do not see it happen and can correct it quietly, do it. No one must know what happened if the mistake is not harmful or life threatening.

Who knows? There may be a mistake we have made that someone has corrected without us ever knowing it.

The last thing to remember are the first two sentences of this blog. We are all sinners. We all fall short of the mark.

By looking inside ourselves and remembering our own imperfections we can be more tolerant when others make mistakes.