The Benign Assumption

I was wasting time on facebook today and realized that one of my friends from the mission has a blog so I decided to check it out. I am so glad I did because I have been struggling with some personal issues lately and this quote from his blog totally hit home for me and I hope this can maybe help others too.

"the benign assumption"
this is something i learned about in a class last semester. it's pretty much just assuming that others have the best of intentions. i like that. it speaks to me. think about it, how often do you think others really do have harmful intentions? i like to think that it's not that often and here's the key. if someone does have the intent on hurting you, isn't that their problem?along those same lines. why don't we assume that others also use the benign assumption on us? perhaps sometimes we worry to much about how we come across to other people. if we thought that others had a benign assumption towards us, how would that change our behavior? for me it would increase my confidence in myself. i'd hold myself back less because i'd know that other people wouldn't misinterpret what i did. it's a good way to break down some boundaries that we ourselves put up. " -Jeff Bentley

I can't think of a truer statement. Today at institute our lesson was on forgiveness and the power to let go of things and move on with life. It was an awesome lesson. Shortly after that I found this quote on the benign assumption and realized that if we implement this idea in our lives then there will be less forgiving that needs to be done because less offense will be taken. So I just want to say thanks Jeff!!! I appreciate your thoughts!