Reflection
There is so much false information around these days that our suspicion is aroused even when it is not justified. Suspicion is a form of attitudinal violence which robs us of our peace of mind and strains our relationships without sufficient cause. There is a mean-spiritedness about suspicion that differs from the realistic caution that is appropriate in certain situations. Suspicion causes us to view someone negatively with little evidence and no proof of untrustworthy behavior. Jesus told us that “the truth will set you free”. To accept and believe only facts that have been verified about people or situations is to live in reality. Be the facts positive or negative, their accuracy brings us a certain stability and integrity. We can choose our course of action. We can judge maturely and act justly. We are free because we are not controlled by worry or anxiety.
Prayer
O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me;
Psalm 43:3
Action
I will try to give to others the same trust and freedom of action that I seek from them. I will not make negative judgments without cause.
Suggested Reading
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Matthew 7:3
Judge not that you may not be judged.
Matthew 7:1
Suspicion is far more apt to be wrong than right; oftener unjust than just. It is no friend to virtue, and always an enemy to happiness.
Hosea Ballou
The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
Winston Churchill
The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.
Mahatma Gandhi
Some people think they have discernment when actually they are just suspicious. Suspicion comes out of the unrenewed mind; discernment comes out of the renewed spirit.
Joyce Meyer
Pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together: at the door where the latter enters, the former makes its exit.
Alexandre Dumas
Suspicion is most often useless pain.
Samuel Johnson
Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
Abraham Lincoln
Conflict grows out of ignorance and suspicion.
Gordon B. Hinckley
Suspicion is creative in its nature. It can bring out and develop the very evils it conceives.
John Daniel Barry