| The Joy of Service |
Chapter 20 |
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There are other rash words besides those spoken in hot temper. There are persons who never wait to hear all of a story before they express an opinion. Their judgments are only half formed, for they wait for but half the information they need to form a fair opinion. They jump to a conclusion when they have only a part of the facts before them. As a consequence, they are often wrong, and not infrequently do serious injustice to others whom they condemn on only one sided evidence. We have no right to form an opinion in which the character or interest of another is concerned, until we have gone patiently and conscientiously over all the facts, so as to be able to judge fairly. Hastily formed judgments of others are most likely to be unjust judgments.
There are those also who make rash decisions, and enter into rash engagements. They are carried off by their emotions, and in their excitement give promises which afterward they find themselves unable to keep. Failures in business and losses of money result ofttimes from rash investing; men are deceived by illusory prospects, and rush into schemes which prove unprofitable. Many persons make like mistakes in choosing friends. Young men are charmed by a pretty face or a pleasant manner, and fall in love only to find by and by what silly fools they were. A great many broken engagements and many unhappy marriages would have been averted if there had been more deliberation at the beginning.
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