Measure Twice - Cut Once
Measure Twice - Cut Once is great carpentry advice, I think most everyone would agree.
Yesterday I have the experience of NOT following that advice when purchasing some shoe molding at Home Depot. I knew 8 ft was the max size I could get in my little suburban hatchback, but there were not 8 ft sections available in what I needed.
I found the longer sections and ASSUMED they were 12 ft and brought them over to the self serve cutting area, dropped a quick 6 ft line and cut the piece in half. When I went to put the two pieces together one was quite longer than the other… turns out the length of the piece was 16 ft! I had to go cut another two feet off the 10 ft leftover sections so they would fit…!
So two things:
1) I only measured once
2) my assumptions were wrong about what I was dealing with
Have you ever made those same mistakes in relationships? I have.
I have made a quick judgement (measuring once) and then also had the wrong assumptions which lead to less than desirable results relationally.
If I would have slowed down enough (I was rushing to get back to my friend who was laying flooring for me), I likely would have noticed that hanging off the other end of my 6 foot measurement was 10 feet of left over material and I could have readjusted. Or simply had I measured twice from each direction… but I didn’t
RELATIONSHIP THOUGHTS
- Are you able to slow down in your relationships, especially new people you meet, and give the relationship time to develop apart from pre-judgements made in a snap moment?
- Are you willing to "measure twice" and look at the context of your relationships to make sure the thoughts, words and actions you take are considered from both sides?