Way to be Speechy

Okay, so the title doesn't technically have anything to do with my point, but I DID go to my first official Speech & Debate tournament today and it WAS freakin' awesome. Here are some thoughts I've been thinking today...

P.S. I know I have a whole post dedicated in depth to not judging, but this is a bit lighter with a few minor examples and a bit different, so bear with me.

Mother Theresa said, "If we judge people, we do not have time to love them."

Think about that. If we judge people, we do not have time to love them. It's totally true! There's a girl on the team who I had basically written off as rude and flippant because of what I had seen in other classes, but I hadn't ever even talked to her before, so how could I have made that call? Today I got to know her a little bit better, and even just from on conversation I had with her, I could tell that my previous judgement was totally and completely wrong. Better yet, I later ended up talking at length to her mother, who was volunteering as one of the judges, and we started to talk about said girl (her daughter). It was definitely eye opening to see her through her mother's eyes and it really reinforced my realization that I had no idea what I was talking about when I judged her character before.

And what about Stapley? I hated that school with a passion. When I met friends of Hannah's who were from Stapley, I automatically had a slightly lower opinion of them simply because of where they went to school. Wow. Did that thought process hold any water? HECK NO! Every single person that I've met from there is completely awesome, not to mention that every single one of my favorite new friends went there. So why did I feel justified in making such a blanket statement? I don't know. I just know that it was dumb.

By judging those people, I ruined any chances I had of getting to know them any better so that I would be able to love them. Luckily, I realized my poor judgement in those cases and am now on my way to change my views of them. Hopefully I'll continue to be able to notice and fix my prejudices in the rest of my life along the way, too.

(Okay, so I know you don't think I post on here a lot, but I feel like I do. Because I write ALL the time, I just seldom finish a thought. So anyway, the above statements were not actually today, but I'm gonna leave it. Now it's today, today. The real one.)

I really admire those who do not form opinions of people. (Yes, YOU! You know who you are.)

All of my friends, really, have this talent. I am constantly amazed at their ability to see through people's flaws and appearances.

In church on Sunday we were talking about individual talents that we all have and one of them in a quote by Marvin J. Ashton is the gift of not-passing judgement. Think about that. It really is a gift. Those people are able to love everyone around them more fully and easily than anyone else. I think it's awesome.

I'll leave you with a quote I found in seminary last week from this past general conference,

"Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weaknesses and shortcomings. It is accepting people as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others... Charity has been defined as “the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love,” the "pure love of Christ..." Charity never faileth." - Thomas S. Monson




I hope that wasn't too jumbled, and if it was, just go read this