Don’t Throw People Below?

While visiting Mesa Verde last year we got so tickled over one little sign. As we stood at the railing of a cliff, we noticed a wooden plaque that seemed to read “Don’t Throw People Below”.

Taking just a couple of steps back to view the sign from a different perspective revealed an entirely different message. Take a look!

We couldn’t see the whole sign the first time! And it reminded me of how quickly we jump to conclusions before we have all the information about a situation.

Many years ago, I received a text from someone while I was baking cookies with my girls. It seemed like it needed a quick response, so I carefully pecked out a simple answer with my pinky finger since my hands were covered with dough. The next day, she reached out to ask what she had done to offend me. I was so confused–shocked, really! So, she explained that my texts were usually more enthusiastic but the one from the day before was brief and lowkey, so she figured I was mad at her about something. I laughed and said, “Oh no, not at all! I had my hands in dough and could only answer with my pinky finger!”

I thought about how many hours this person went believing something about me that wasn’t the case at all. And I cringed at the thought, Have I ever drawn a false conclusion about someone because I didn’t know the whole story! I’m sure I have and just haven’t known it.

It’s sad that so many false assumptions can be made about each other because we’re missing a piece of information that would have changed everything. When we do this, we’re really throwing people under the bus, or maybe I should say throwing people below, ha! We need to take a few steps back and look at it from another perspective.

It’s Sunday and we’ll interact with a lot of people this week. Let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt!

And on another note, our time at Mesa Verde was part of our 2-week trip out West last year. My husband has reminded me that I still have yet to post about that trip, and I know he would really like for me to do that. I’ve put it off because it’s a lot of photos to go through, but sometime this month I will do a series of posts from that trip. For now, here’s a few photos from Mesa Verde until I can share more. Enjoy!

Happy Sunday!