False Assumptions

I almost didn't bother to post tonight because I'm tired, and I'm short of time. But something happened just a half hour ago that caught my attention. A neighbor called me to say she had just returned from 3 weeks away. I remember when she prepared to leave.

Our mobile home community won't allow you to have someone "house sit" unless they are on the title. She had tried to get around that, offering to have a former neighborhood resident sign title and then transfer back when she returned. One of the folks involved in office matters decided she was trying to "move" this person in, permanently. This person assumed she was lying about the 3 weeks away and assumed, further, that she was trying to move out, quietly.

As it turns out, this assumption was totally incorrect. But it brought me up short. How many times have I, too, mistakenly assumed something that later turned out to be incorrect? Far too many times than I want to admit here. This was a good lesson for me. I consider it a very good lesson because it happened to someone else and I simply observed. I hope, however, that I am smart enough to see what the Lord was showing me.

Father, please fill me with the grace to resist the urge to assume facts that are not present; give me the grace to resist judging before I know all the true facts.