Our Perspectives… They can be totally on the mark, or they can be oh so blindly followed. You know what I mean. Pride aside (that gets us into way too much trouble anyway), sometimes what we think is true isn’t always accurate.
There are times when we traipse along full of misguided confidence, when we really need to slow down and pay attention. Pay attention folks. You know, like when you’re doing your weekly grocery shopping and errands.
My Truth
There are several items I’ve bought and used for years. Same brands, the same flavors and scents, you know the drill. Well, I was paying attention. I needed more body wash. New product bottle, but its in stock. Cool. Checked it off! And I moved right on down the list.
A several days later I finally emptied the old bottle and placed the new bottle efficiently on the shower shelf. The next day while showering I realized something was severely wrong with the new body wash. This stuff is THIN!!! Jeez!
It didn’t matter how much body wash I put in my palm. Add a bit of water, rub my hands together, apply…. Then swipe razor, and… Nope! Its like there’s no soap at all! I mean the razor was dragging horribly across my skin. What the heck?!?
Let’s get this straight. I’m a mom…of boys. There is no “faint heart” here. And, yeah, that hope addict side of me that’s eternally optimistic knew there had to be a way to make this soap work like, well, soap. I tried several “eureka” ideas to make this soap do its job. It’s gotta work, right???
Lets see, I tried doubling the amount I put in my palm. I pulled out a shower loofah. That didn’t help, at all! Then I tried washing smaller portions at a time. Nope! Fine. I, like, quadrupled the amount I should be using. Nada. Zilch. Nothing I tried worked.
Truthfully Frustrated
I eventually gave up. The bottle was removed from the shower so it could completely dry before I returned it. That really irked me too. I have skin issues, and it is hard for me to find products I like that actually work. Darn it. And that product had worked well for so long too.
Anyway, it took a while to find the receipt, but I still had it. Yay! It had only been three weeks, but still. Yay! Lol! I set them together on the counter to take with me on my next trip to the store where I’d bought it. All good to go!
Well, except I kept forgetting to take them with me when I went. Day in and day out, I kept forgetting. Even last week I still forgot to return the dang thing. Sigh.
Meanwhile, while I’m shopping last week, I recall I now need body lotion. Yep, it’s the companion product to the nightmare body wash I still needed to return. Anyway, I’ll buy the lotion in hopes that the new formula works better than the new body wash formula. It can’t be that bad right?!?
The Lie
Then it happened. Eureka. True enlightenment hits me. The blinds are pulled away and I see it plain as day. The body wash, usually in the clear plastic bottle, is out of stock. But…. The lotion, sitting right there on the store shelf, in the solid colored plastic bottle, is in stock. The lotion is somehow in the same solid colored bottle as the body wash I have at home. The same solid colored bottle of body wash I still need to return. Oh, nooooooo. It can’t possibly be what I think it is….
I clung to my denial the rest of my shopping trip, and all the way home. Denial was my complete existence all the way up to the point I snatched the “to be returned” bottle from the counter and read the label slowly one more time. Well, maybe several more times.
Yep! Right there printed clear as bright daylight was that dreaded word. Lotion. Yep. LOTION. Oh, man! Lotion. No wonder that “body wash” wouldn’t lather up. That’s why the razor didn’t glide or cut smoothly. I felt about a half-inch tall with the education level of an infant considering my current shopping skills. Heck, my showering skills need help too! Sigh. I had bought that “body wash” lie hook, line, and sinker!
I’ve just got to laugh at how silly that mis-perception is. Lol! It’s either laugh or cry right? Seriously though. I’m truly thankful now that I never made it to the return counter with that “body wash” and my mouthful of complaints. Or, what about the call or email to the manufacturer that I’d thought about doing to let them know of my experience. Can you imagine how those conversations would have went??? Lol! That would have been sooooo embarrassing! Hilarious. But, still very embarrassing for me.
Our Truth Is Dictated by Our Perceptions
And just like that. Just a snap of our fingers. What we perceive to be absolute truth becomes our downfall. I just knew I had purchased the body wash. Therefore, I proceeded in that knowledge. Faulty knowledge though it was. That was the knowledge I operated under for several weeks.
Likewise, in any area of our days, in any time in our lives, we can slip off track before we realize it. In a moments notice our trajectory becomes skewed and we’re headed in the wrong direction. How many times do we allow ourselves to be led by our perceptions alone? How often do we slow down and look deeper into a matter or issue?
Here are a couple of famous phrases that came to mind while I was writing this post. I think they apply here:
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~ Metaphysics
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” ~ Proverbs 25:2 NKJV
Test Yourself!
Ultimately, we must see and hear with our minds fully engaged. We must mentally pay attention to our surroundings. And always, always be willing to dig a bit deeper to ascertain any truth, or lies, within our perceptions. If we don’t, then we end up making a fool of ourselves in the end. Well, just as I somehow overlooked that six letter word, lotion, for weeks.
I swear I looked at that bottle numerous times. Lol! Yet, I still proceeded to treat it as a body wash even though it was not performing that way. I had every evidence in front of my face, for weeks. Yet, my mis-perception prevailed.
Have you ever had a similar experience? Please share in the comments below. Thanks!
As always, thanks for stopping by. Talk to you soon!
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Yup, I done it many times. Watched my mom mix up body wash and sunscreen once out camping. Just would not rub in and bubbles everywhere. We were laughing too hard to tell her. She was in a hurry.
Slow down folks.
Lol! I imagine that was hilarious. I’m still laughing at my experience. Oh, the things we do!