High school was an interesting time for me. My family was pretty fractured, I had no idea who I was or who I wanted to be, and I didn’t have many adults in my life who were willing to push past my walls and connect with me in a meaningful way. Just so we’re clear, I shared plenty of the blame for that as I had no intention of making that easy on anyone who tried.  

Most of my relationships with my teachers were, at best, tumultuous. Because of this, even when I wasn’t being rude, sarcastic, or disrespectful they thought I was being rude, sarcastic, and disrespectful. Again, in their defense, I was usually being rude, sarcastic, and disrespectful.

I can still remember one day that exemplified this. I was in Chemistry class my senior year and, for once, actually paying attention to the lesson. My teacher was lecturing, and she slipped up and said something that was factually incorrect. The textbook we were reading from actually said the opposite. (I am not a “man of science,” please don’t ask what she was teaching, I have NO idea. It probably involved the word covalent.) I raised my hand and asked her to clarify. She said something to the equivalent of “If you were paying attention, you’d understand this.” I responded by asking more specifically and citing the textbook as the basis for my question. In response, I was immediately sent to the nearest administrator’s office. Once I got there, he asked me what happened, I told him, and he told me to just stay in his office until the next class period.

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Looking back on this moment makes me ask two questions. The first question is, “Am I correctable?” When someone approaches me with new or different information, am I able to evaluate that information and allow it to shape my thought process? Obviously, this thought came from my teacher’s response to my question. That day, she was definitely not correctable. At least not by someone like me.

That last bit brings up the second question. Does my character allow me the level of trust required to bring that type of correction? As easy as it would be to make my teacher the villain in this story, she wasn’t. She was actually a great teacher who deeply cared about her students and whom I, unfortunately, took for granted. That day, I was the problem. Factually, I was correct. At that moment, my words and my tone were actually respectful and appropriate. However, the rest of my life was not reflective of that moment. The way I was living my life and treating the people around me cost me any opportunity to bring that type of correction, especially to a teacher in the middle of teaching a full class.

How about you? What seeds are you sowing with your life? Does your character support your ability to bring correction or does it hinder it? Are your relationships built on trust and mutual respect? How do you respond when you are faced with correction? Do you at least listen to the feedback and evaluate it to see if there is any truth to it or do you immediately reject it and attempt to place blame on others?

Here is the truth, no one actually likes correction in the moment. It hurts! Our natural inclination is to reject it or point fingers at the one doing the correcting. But Proverbs 27:17 tells us that “as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” That means we need others in our lives to point out the areas where we are missing the mark and to bring light to our blind spots. I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating: Don’t do life alone. It’s way more painful than it needs to be! Be a trustworthy person, surround yourself with trustworthy people, and be amazed at what comes next!

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Our stories are what shape us and reveal our purpose. I wrote a book called “Magic in the Mug” about this very subject. It’s filled with such stories and is all about how those stories can help us discover a life of purpose. I’d love your help getting this book out into the world! Click Here to find out more and help make this dream a reality!