Two Sides to Every Story: The Case and Countercase

The school bell has rung, class is now in session.

It is,

I am a firm believer that stories can bring understanding to complex concepts, so I would like to begin with one. There was a Pastor at a church that received an email from a young man he had counseled in the past, about his upcoming marriage. The young man shared that he was upset because it appeared his family was not been very supportive of his bride-to-be and that because of the lack of support, she was having second thoughts.

The young man went on to ask the Pastor to please pray for him because he felt that his family was being unfair. The Pastor felt there may have been more to the story, but responded to the young man with support and agreed to continue to pray for the situation.

The Pastor was astonished when he received a call from the young man’s Mother stating that she had read his response to her son and wanted to explain her side of the story. The Mother went on to share about everyones’ misgivings about the bride-to-be. She told of her concern that the bride-to-be had already been married before, and had expressed uncertainty about marrying again so soon. The bride-to-be was also immature and self-centered. The Mother gave countless examples and said that she thought it was important that the Pastor heard both sides of the story.

The Pastor thanked her for sharing her side of the story and then hung up the phone. He reflected on how uneasy he felt when read the young man’s account of the story about his family, but wanted so much to give him a positive reply, that ignored his intuition. He learned a valuable lesson, “Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.” (Proverbs 18:17 TLB

Allow this to be a lesson to you, if you are told a story about another person, ask the other person before making a judgement. This will sow good seed in your life when the time comes and someone is hearing a story about you.

For more on Two Sides to Every Story, consider checking my post Be Curious, Not Judgmental: Perception is not Always the Reality.

The school bell has rung, class dismissed!