If I Were You

How many times have we looked or listened to someone and then thought to ourselves or even said to them; “if I were you, I would have?” But, we’re not them! We know that God created each of us as an individual. We are just not like others!
We can tell them (only if they ask) those things we have learned from our mistakes, our learning experiences, but we never should place ourselves as an unwanted buffer between others and their learning. Always remember; if God had not intended for each of us to think and see things in different ways it would have been easy for Him to change us at our creation.
I have looked at my kids many times and then wonder where their thinking came from. Then, I remembered both my mother and grandma telling me that they could not understand where some of my thinking was coming from. I guess, those different thoughts my kids have came from the same place my thoughts come from.
I do things “my way”. You do things “your way”. Our final goal may be the same but our methods of reaching that same goal are far apart. My brain doesn’t work “your way” and your brain doesn’t work “my way”. Often it does no more than confuse me if I’m told to change in the middle of my thinking process and I shudder to think maybe I’m doing the same to others! Many times I’ve found it easier to tell YOU how to do something than it is to explain it to myself!
No matter how hard we try, there is just no way, we can climb into another person’s body shell and try to change or live their lives for them. Right, wrong, or indifferent, there are some things a person has to learn and do for themselves.
Many times I’ve thought to myself and heard others say; if I could live my life over I would-----. We can’t, but if that same situation comes up again, we can take what we learned from it the last time and avoid doing the same thing again. That’s what this thing called learning is all about!
In our lives, we find it easy to look at the mistakes and negatives of others, and then we try to fit their thoughts into our own lives. When we look closely we find our only accomplishment was that of pulling ourselves down! Many times, I’ve heard the phrase, “live and let live”. Maybe it should be changed to “live and let learn”!
If we continually try to live the lives of others, how can we find the time to appreciate all the blessings that God puts in our lives?
If I were you, which I’m not and will never be, then maybe I should work harder on those “if I were me”. O boy! As soon as I put ME under that looking glass I start finding many things in ME that I think need changing!
For one thing; for many years I have found myself with an acute case of “foot in mouth”! Lately I’m trying to take time to think (only an instant) before I let a thoughtless answer pop out. I believe if your question is important enough for you to ask then it is important for to take that extra moment to answer. I’ve learned that so often those quickie answers ended up as hurtful answers. See, I’m learning!
One of the hardest things I had to learn is that sometimes I had to learn to keep my mouth shut and let things happen. It was very hard when it was a loved one that could be hurting themselves! Sometimes letting things happen was the only way they would learn! It took me a while to learn that no one ever said that all learning would be easy! Surprisingly, in my life, I’ve found that some of my hardest lessons to learn were also my most lasting!
Please try to be easy on those “if I were you” and I’ll try to be easy on yours.
Lastly, I believe that God has completed each person’s “Book Of Life” and if He needed a coauthor He would have ask.