What's Your Opinion?

Some people like to start sentences with “You should…” or “You need to…” Have you ever known someone who did this? Someone in your family, a friend, maybe even someone you dated. Maybe you do it. I know I’ve done it more than a few times. Do you like being around the person who chronically does that? Do you look forward to spending time with them? Likely not. There’s truth in the old saying “Opinions are like butt holes. Everyone has one and they all stink.”

For some reason most of us really love to give others unwarranted advice, and of course, we’re always right… but I wonder why we feel that we have a right to do this? Why do we think that they even want our opinion. Maybe you can relate to this one. I’ve said a time or two, “If I wanted your opinion, I would’ve asked for it!” and that was true. I do ask when I want someone’s opinion.

I was in Target yesterday looking at shoes (yes, I would buy shoes there and I’m not ashamed to admit it) and something completely blew me away. A girl was walking by me as I struggled on the floor with my boots and asked, “Can I ask your opinion? Which of these two black dresses should I get?” BLEW ME AWAY! I was so stunned by the question I could hardly even answer it! I fumbled for words, gave her much more than one opinion, left her probably much more confused than before she had asked, and afterwards felt a little like one does when star-struck in the front of their favorite celebrity. But how interesting. She wanted my opinion. She asked for my opinion. So why do we feel that we should give our opinion when nobody asks us?

Granted, there are some rare occasions when someone doesn’t want our opinion, but they do in fact need it; a guy about to jump off the bridge, your best friend’s boyfriend hit on you, things like that. But what makes me even more fascinated is that usually the people who go around doing this constantly, at least I’ve found, are exactly the same people who feel that any one opinion is wrong for telling them what is right and wrong to believe. Well, isn’t that exactly what they are doing?

It’s like the story I heard recently. In a nutshell: Something like, the atheist dies and stands before God and knowing he’s there to be judged the man says, “But God, I didn’t believe and I didn’t know, so how can you fairly judge me according to your standards when I didn’t know what they were?!” So God says, “You’re right. I will judge you according to your standards. We will listen to this tape to find out what they were.” The tape had automatically recorded every time the man started a sentence with, “You have to…” “You should…”

Jesus talked about this. He said, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Seems fair.

-Krystal is a blogger for The Daily Vine. Check out her bio to see where her view comes from.