There’s a vast difference between a fact and an opinion. If we think they are one and the same, and we let our facts become our opinions, it will lead us to misery.
The wife of an alcoholic husband can say, “How can I be happy, my husband is destroying his life.” She can be better if she doesn’t add resentment and anger to her situation. A businessman lost two million dollars in the stock market, that’s a fact, but don’t let that fact create an opinion that you are finished or ruined. Epictetus, the Greek Stoic philosopher, said it this way., “Men are disturbed, not by things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen.”
We all go through trying times. We all face setbacks, heartaches, and disappointments, these are facts. Still, we can change our opinion about the facts, and instead of agreeing with them, choose to see them in a positive light. This is why the Bible says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for our good to those that love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Change your opinion about what you are facing, and God will bring good out of it.
The Thomas Edison Laboratory, worth untold millions burnt to the ground in a fire, with zero insurance. That was a fact; however Edison did not let the fact become his opinion. He was asked what he would do? His reply, “We will start rebuilding tomorrow.” When our opinion is changed, good will always come out of evil!
Truths like this have to be heard, again and again. Download my series called “Moving Life Forward.”
We all need to state fact or opinions when speaking of all things with the children