Do you ever have those days where a word or phrase seems to work its way into every conversation you have? Have those days ever turned into weeks? months?

Somewhere along the way we became suspicious of each other, unforgiving, and choose the negative in situations rather than the positive. Now that’s not always the case and it’s not an every day thing, but it seems to be more frequent in my surroundings than I ever remember.

I found this article on Huffington Post and felt it needed to be shared:

When Should You Give Someone ‘The Benefit of the Doubt’?

“I was thinking about that interesting saying, “The benefit of the doubt,” and I decided to look it up on the Internet. The Urban Dictionary defines it this way: “When giving someone the benefit of the doubt, you are believing what they say and taking their word because you, yourself, have some doubt about what happened.”

The Free Dictionary says this about it: “to believe something good about someone, rather than something bad, when you have the possibility of doing either.”

“The concept of giving or not giving the benefit of the doubt is very important when it comes to relationships.” Margaret Paul, Ph.D.

Some consider it to be my naivety, but I refuse to live my life in fear of the world. My faith in Gods perfect plan for my life is stronger than my worries. Now i’m not going skydiving without a parachute just to test Gods plan, and by all means I do my research before I put myself or my family in harms way, but vacationing is not something I’m giving up because of a mosquito or facebook rumors. Life is to be lived, loudly, boldly, with no regrets – my life is, anyway.

 “This is why it is so important not to write people off or brand them as enemies. Be as forgiving of them as you are of yourself. Cut them the same slack you would for yourself so that you can continue to work with them and make use of their talents.” – The Daily Stoic

What happened to the Golden Rule? What happened to believing in humanity? What would happen if we passed less judgment and gave more hugs? What if we used more situations as teachable moments, investing in each other’s success, rather than walking away or turning our heads?

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” – Matthew 7:1

Of course there are exceptions to this, bad people who ruin it for everyone else, people who prey on the weak and take advantage of others. Are we not glorifying them by using their behavior as the standard for which we view others? Are we not encouraging this behavior by personifying it in those around us?We are all busy, instant gratification, gotta have it right here, right now people. We are all trying to get home at 5 PM, or to work in the morning – shouldn’t we have more empathy for each other as we wait our turn to exit? Can you imagine the weight off our shoulders if we invested more positive energy into our lives rather than negative?

But what do I know? My plan is to keep taking epic trips with the people I love, to explore every corner of the world that I can get to, and to hug as many necks as I can get my arms around. Terminal disease changes things, perspectives, ambitions, dreams and agendas – I love my little life with my sweet husband and you know what? It loves me right back.

“If I’m going down, I’m going down in flames. from this moment on, aint nothin gonna be the same. one thing’s for certain, everybody’s gonna know my name, if I’m going down, I’m going down in flames.” – Stoney LaRue