Am I Sure Of That?

Yesterday I had a student tell me that he lost his jacket under the bleachers. We went to the end of the bleachers and looked underneath. I could not see anything, let alone his jacket. He continued to point saying, "There it is, right there!" I scanned beneath the entire bleachers and still could not see his jacket. At that point, I started to question my eyesight (it is well-known that I have poor vision). I did not want to take any more time away from my class to continue looking for his jacket, so I asked a custodian if he could get under the bleachers and look. I saw the custodian about 40 minutes later in the hallway. He quickly said to me, "There was nothing there." Man did I enjoy hearing those words. I instantly felt better about my vision.

Have you ever had a time in your life where you feel like you are losing it? Where you feel like you think you believe something to be true, but someone is challenging you in a way that makes you think otherwise? If we have a solid foundation of values and principles, we are less shaky in our beliefs. In the scenario above, my knowledge of me having poor vision (even with my contacts in) allowed me to question myself. I did not have a solid belief foundation in that area of my life. I allowed past experience or knowledge to strongly affect my thinking.

When we are unsure why we believe something or we believe it because we are told to believe it or because of past experiences, we do not necessarily have a solid foundation. Take politics for example. If I believe what mainstream media tells me repeatedly and then someone challenges me with other facts that make sense, I can start to waiver in my beliefs because I have not truly educated myself on politics. The same can be said for religion, healthy living, marriage, relationships, my intelligence, etc.

This post is a reminder to me that we can not rely on surface learning to have strong, principle-based beliefs. We must continue to seek information that helps us learn and grown in the areas that are important in our lives. I have heard many times it said that there is no staying put. If we are not growing, we are sliding backwards. I have allowed myself to slide backwards long enough. I belief most Americans have been doing so also. It is time for us to start educating ourselves and not relying on the mass media to do so. I encourage you to start reading and learning more everyday on your core values and principles. God bless