At the previous article “choices”, we tackled the issue of the importance of judging fairly, in other words, the capability to properly judge the character of a person one deals with so that he becomes able to precisely determine the status each one holds in his life, so that his life will not be affected negatively as it is said, “tell me who your friends are, then I will tell you who you are”
Here, I am not referring to your friends whom you chose to accompany you at your life path, but all the ones whom you granted your trust. I also did not mean that to judge carefully, you should keep judging all the people you meet, whether they are good or evil. It is not your role to judge, but to form an opinion as to whom you should grant your trust.
An impartial judgment should not be formed according to the physical appearance, as so many people with modest physical appearances are having good hearts. Moreover, it should not be made in haste as hasty judgments will hinder you from finding out the actual facts. Thus try not to judge any matter in haste and try to take into account the whole picture. You probably will understand why some people act in a specific way through conversation and trying to understand their points of view. I read a funny story that took place at a school. After the teacher has explained a math lesson, she tried to test if students have absorbed the lesson, so she asked one of the students that if she gave him an apple, an apple and another apple, how many apples he would have. The child began to count on his fingers then he said, “4 apples”
The teacher seemed upset as she exerted a huge effort to teach that lesson, yet here comes the child’s answer to prove all her efforts were gone with the wind. The teacher repeated the question, the child tried to count again more accurately to get the right answer. He repeated the same answer, yet seemed more confident, “4 apples”. The teacher grew more upset and wandered if she was not able explain the lesson properly or if the child was fairly intelligent. So she tried thrice, but this time she changed the kind of fruit saying, “If I give you an orange, an orange and another orange, how many oranges do you have then?”The child said, “Three oranges”. This was the long awaited answer, so the teacher smiled and felt her efforts did not go in vain. But she decided to repeat the same question using apples….to be continued
General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
