Judgement

Yes I'm still here ... if anyone out there noticed I was gone.  Been a bit busy dealing with reno's, kids with the scoots, and feeling like barfing myself 24/7.

I heard a saying the other day that has totally gotten stuck in my brain.

"We judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions." 

Whoa, right?  Do you not TOTALLY do this?  How many times have you said, during/after a fight "Well I didn't mean to hurt you."  But you did hurt them.  With your actions.  Or switch it around - somebody hurt you, and you probably assume it was all part of some diabolical, totally pre-meditated plan to wound you.  Not that maybe they didn't mean to, or intend to.

So naturally I tried to think of how this could relate to money, and being smarter with it.  We might have the best of intentions with our money, but either life, ignorance, lack of self discipline, etc. interfere and we don't stick to our intended course.  Then we go to apply for a mortgage, loan, credit card and can't get it because our 'actions' affected our credit rating negatively, so we're judged by those actions and our dream of owning a new house/car/etc. have to get put on hold for a bit longer.

I guess you can apply this to any situation in life, and it makes you (or me) stop and think about everything lately.  I'm not so quick to get mad at people that do something that offends me, because in all likelihood it wasn't their intention. 

And I find myself slowing down and thinking twice about how my actions might be perceived by others, despite what I think they're meant to look like or what my intentions are.  I try to "start as I mean to go on" (another quote I love) and act in a way that would bring good judgement towards me.  (did that even make sense?)

Anyways, I'm going to try and judge others less by their actions and try to show a little more compassion and try to imagine what their intentions are.  And if I'm not sure, maybe I'll just ask.

Happy Tuesday.