BOTD

Benefit of the doubt

In a presidency meeting a few weeks ago, one of my counselors shared this BOTD concept. I think my whole life I have been incredibly conscious of this idea. When Charlie and I are driving somewhere and he gets ticked at another driver, I say, "I'm sure she didn't mean to cut you off, maybe she has a pain in her neck and couldn't turn all the way to see you." or "That person must be in a big hurry because his wife is at the hospital delivering their baby." When I see kids at the park cursing and misbehaving, I say to myself, "They must not have a mother at home teaching them. They have probably had a rough childhood and are doing the best they know how to do." Or maybe I see someone dressing themselves or their children immodestly and I think, "They must not understand the consequences for that and the dangerous paths that immodesty could take them. Or, maybe they couldn't afford the other half of that outfit."

In this calling as RS President, I have realized, I should strive to do even better at this. What I have realized is that often others don't give me the BOTD and while I can't control that, I can control my own actions and behaviors towards others. I think what is hard is I am asked to analyze situations and report back to the bishop my judgements and observations. While I try very hard not to judge others, I think they think I am judging. Silly enough, they are judging me by thinking I am judging them. Kind of complicated, I know but just something that has been on my mind.

I guess the point of this post is to encourage myself and those who read it to do a better job of offering others the BOTD!