Today I gave a second chance to a person that had a big heart, but had made some egregious errors in judgement.

Why would I do that?

People are people, right?  We each have perspectives, we each have experiences  that we bring into interpersonal relationships.  What if we judged everyone on their first, second or third impression?  Permanently?  If we did, would we have ANY friends?

People react in situations based on their experience, they sometimes over or under compensate for experiences that they have had in the past.  Haven’t you?  Have you ever acted overly confident when you should have been humble?  Shy or unassuming when you should have been assertive?  We have all done it, and I hope in all our cases, that there was someone who looked at you for who you are, not your behavior in the moment,  that they saw beyond the obvious and saw the potential.

Today I did that.  Others had advised me in the opposite – sever ties with them, I was told!  This is unacceptable!   I think I made the right choice.  The person noticed my gesture and was very appreciative.  This made me very happy, and grateful that I had made the effort to see beyond the situation.

Is there someone you are ready to extricate from your world?  Someone, that perhaps behaved in a moment that was inappropriate, or even egregious?  Could you let it go? Not just ignore it, but actually talk with the person and discuss why you felt it was not the behavior your would expect?  Could you give them the opportunity to change, or at least address the behavior/action, etc.?  What if it could all be chalked up to experience and all could move forward in a more powerful, forgiving union?

Could you be the bigger person?