Have you ever had one of those moments?
A moment when it takes everything in you to keep from rolling your eyes in disgust.
That moment when you find yourself rehearsing the most polite way to say:
"HA!, like I or any other sane individual would ever listen to your unsolicited non-expert advice on (insert any topic on which you probably do need, and likely however indirectly and unintentionally indeed solicited).
That moment when you (upon much later reflection, of course) find yourself shooting down inherently sound reasoning and advice, just because it came from the “wrong“ source.
I've had a few of those. Much to the dismay of my incredibly patient husband, I've had quite a few of those.
But you're NOT God! You're NOT God!"
Yep, yours truly. Not one of my best moments, but we all lose our minds a bit at rock bottom.
I've been studying the book of Proverbs (which could have very appropriately been titled: "Living your most peaceful and prosperous life by heeding wisdom and avoiding people and experiences with ill intentions, for dummies," and my oh my, I have never felt so convicted.
My dear hubby knows a lot about a lot. And quite often he likes to share all that he knows with me, never mind if I'm ready to hear— let alone receive it. Quite often this sharing leads to me refuting whatever wise finding or advice he's offering—no matter how helpful or necessary it may be. See above.
One of John’s and my favorite pastimes is snuggling up on the couch after the little one heads to bed, and binge watching mini series on YouTube. One evening we happened upon, GQ's series: "Most Expensivist $#!+ with Two Chainz."
It was a neat series where we follow along as rapper, Two Chainz tries the most expensivist things. This life-changing evening in particular, we watched the episode, Two Chainz Thinks this $5k Toothbrush is going to Knock Your Socks Off."
You know those moments...Those Ah Ha! moments when you finally take the advice that you'd avoided like the plague--only to realize that although it came from the least likely place, it was exactly what you needed?
This was one of them.
We watched as Two Chainz tried the Reinast, the titanium toothbrush, with patented anti-bacterial technology. As Dr. Debra talked, I listened with bated breath. I needed to hear all about this fancy piece of dental technology. But before she got to the good part, she spoke with Two Chainz about his flossing technique. She explained how we’d been doing it wrong all along! She explained how I should be wrapping the floss around my middle fingers, that way my index fingers are free to control the flossing movement without me cutting off my circulation!
Genius!
Why hadn’t I thought of that?!
Now in all of my years of caring for my pearly whites, it never occurred to me that I’d been flossing inefficiently; but this made sense! So I tried it. It works. Game changer.
Over the next few day, excited for my new discovery, I flossed enthusiastically.
And then it hit me.
I took dental advice that I didn’t know I needed from a mini series on YouTube, and it worked out.
Perhaps, it’s okay (and maybe even sometimes worth it) to heed the advice of the good intending, who quite probably know something you don’t, be they an expert or just someone who happened upon a wealth of helpful and practical knowledge that they‘d lovingly wish to share.