day 316: "It Was Just Bad Judgment"

Before we even get to work each day we are bombarded with messages and news of people using or having bad judgment. Whether it a celebrity, a politician, a high-profile business executive, a sports figure, or someone we know, we are confronted with examining instances of others' judgment each and every day. I once had a situation in my career where a senior executive had just received a gift and decided to bring it to work to show his staff and in particular his personal assistant. As he unwrapped the gift and brought it up in front of her, she saw it and ran from the office. Her next stop, after sitting at her desk trying to figure out what to do next, was my office. This senior executive had just showed her a new pistol that he had received. As we talked to this senior executive about why he had brought the gun to work, he didn't think anything of it at all. We had rules in our business that weapons and guns were not allowed in the workplace, but for him, he couldn't see the difference between a gun and the golf putter that another executive kept in his office. It was a case of very bad judgment. Even without our no-tolerance policy, he would have still lost his job for the use of bad judgment. Like I said, we hear of these things everyday as in the case now of the NBA player who brought a gun to the locker room (or in his case, to his office). We are confronted by big judgment lapses and smaller indiscretions that are also the by-product of poor and bad judgment. When we process these through our own experience and try to do our best to not lapse into using bad judgment ourselves, we need to take each and every lesson and ensure that we are not allowing ourselves to miss or not see what is right and pure. I know only one way to do this and always be sure. That is to stay in God's word and to not lose the lessons and words that He gives us. We can read this in Proverbs 4:5; "Get wisdom; develop good judgment. Don’t forget my words or turn away from them." Being in God's Word daily, studying and remembering what we read, is the anchor of good judgment that we can have that will keep us steady and in the right place when everything else around us is blowing and moving around. Good judgment is a great example to others and the example that God wants us to have as work towards His purpose.

Proverbs 4:5 (New Living Testament)