When Being Right Just Isn’t

Her: “Ha! Told you I was right! But you didn’t wanna listen. And now look. {imagine a funky chicken celebratory dance move or two}. Whatcha got to say about that?! Hmm?”

Him: “No one likes a know it all.”

Her: “Oh yeah? Says who?”

Show of hands: how many of you have heard this conversation in some variation or another? As much as I loved laughing (hysterically) when my daughter did a dance move that mimicked both a chicken and a giraffe (simultaneously), my son’s last words got my attention. No one likes a know it all. Could he actually be right?

Surprisingly I found the answer–in the Bible.  Ecclesiastes 7: 16 (Amplified version) states:

Be not morbidly exacting and externally righteous overmuch, neither strive to make yourself pretentiously appear overwise–why should you get puffed up and destroy yourself?

There it was, in black and white. Externally over righteous, being puffed up, and pretentiously appearing overwise all lead to destruction. But being right can’t be a bad thing, can it? Absolutely not. As parents, teachers or leaders, we bear the responsibility for empowering others to make the right decisions. We have to know the right thing to do in order to teach it to others. However, when we lord our rightness over others it only serves one purpose: to glorify us. And when that type of selfish ambition is present, we know what’s absent: love, empathy and compassion.

Thanks for visiting.