As many of you know I am intentional each day to live my life according to the five agreements.
1) Be Impeccable with Your Word
2) Don't Take Anything Personally
{C}3) {C}Don't Make Assumptions
4) Always Do Your Best
5) Be skeptical, but learn to listen.
My friend Jane, who I mention quite often in my gratitude journal and who inspired our affirmation card ministry, send me a funny story which is all about what happens when we make assumptions. This is her story.
My friend, Ingrid, and I made these candleholders. We made 6 in total. They are put together like building blocks with glass vases, bowls, plates etc. to get the desired affect and then glued to stay in place. We’d been collecting glassware from second-hand shops for a while and it took nearly a whole day to make the 6.
We decided to give the three largest to Patience’s Mum, Sylvia, for Christmas, as they looked great in a cluster. I carefully rolled them in bubble wrap and put them in a box, along with some socks that I had tie dyed for them. Now originally in the box was an attachment for a Kartcha, a pressure cleaner we had bought. John and Patience picked up the box and took it over to the Island where Sylvia and Terry live. I got a Thank you message that puzzled me a bit. It said “Thank you for the present it is very practical”. I thought she must have been referring to the socks because the candleholders are far from practical. Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, Greg, Ingrid, and I went to visit Sylvia and Terry’s place on the Island. We were having a great time. During lunch I brought up the candleholders, as I wanted to tell her how much Ingrid had put into making them and how it was her idea in the first place. Sylvia just looked blank. Then I said about the box that the kids brought over. Still blank. Then it all started to fall into place and off she raced to get the box that had never been opened because they had assumed it was this boring cleaning attachment. She was so excited, pulling them out and displaying them. She couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. It was priceless. And then the socks as well. She said that on Christmas Day she had been so disappointed not to get the socks as I had told her I was making them. What a laugh. Who knows how long that box would have stopped there if I hadn’t opened my mouth.
So don’t assume, ask questions, even on small things.
I am so grateful to Jane for sharing this story with me and now with those of you reading it. On the one hand, this is a funny story is about someone who made an assumption about what was in a box based on what was on the outside of the box. At the same time, it raises a deeper question, how many of us as the quote says, “judge a book by its cover.” How often do we judge someone and assume we know what they are like based on what we see. Maybe, like Sylvia, we will be pleasantly surprised when we take the time to look inside the box and get to know the contents of that which we have judged.
What have we missed out in life because we assumed something about someone because of the container they came in? just for today, may we remember to take the time to open the box and explore the contents.