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Writer's pictureAnnie Warner Donnelly

Running on Opinions

Updated: Jul 17, 2023


So much of our society runs on opinions. Let’s think of our lives.

What haven’t we done in our lives because of someone’s opinion?


Did we want to sing and someone told us we weren’t any good at it so we stopped? Did we want to be a nurse or a teacher; a chef or a plumber; a pastor or a doctor or a lawyer or a child care worker; a missionary or a nutritionist; a banker or a welder or a bricklayer or a long distance truck driver; a church leader, a gardener, a musician?


Did we want a certain career, but instead we allowed someone’s words … somewhere … sometime … to discourage us from following our dreams, possibly from following the very thing that God has placed in our hearts to do for Him?


One of the saddest stories I’ve heard about someone’s opinion changing someone’s life happened to my Mom. In her teens, she loved to skate and she was very good at it. The Ice Follies, a professionally trained, travelling figure skating show, came to her town. They saw her skate and wanted her to join their organization.


But, her father said, “No!” Why?


He said that she didn’t have the legs for it. But, his opinion wasn’t based in truth because the Ice Follies, who wanted to hire her, believed that she did.


By accepting her Dad’s opinion, it was a loss my Mom felt all of her life. Not only did it keep her from realizing her skating dream, I rarely saw her in a skirt or a dress. For most of her life, she hid her legs by wearing pants. One opinion … life long pain.


Breaking free of a pain like that requires the Saviour’s truth and His healing touch.


We often give so much power to the opinions of others that we actually don’t do what God has gifted us to do.


It’s not just the opinions of the people in our lives that affect us.


It’s the opinion of some advertisers that we won’t be fully awake until we’ve had that first cup of coffee.


It’s the opinion of bookstores and libraries that support many authors whose opinions differ from the truths found in the Bible.


It’s talk show hosts who make millions of dollars by voicing their opinions in ways that the world calls entertainment.


Many newsmen and women don’t just tell us about the news. They tell us their opinion of what we should think about the news.


How often do we, like my Mom’s Dad, pour our opinions into the lives of those around us, opinions based on fear or judgment or envy?


Who among us, when asked for advice, has given our opinion based on what we would do, rather than helping the other person find the Truth in their situation?


A friend once asked Isidor I. Rabi, a Nobel prize winner in science, how he became a scientist. Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. But, she wasn't so much interested in what he had learned that day. Instead, she always inquired, "Did you ask a good question today?" "Asking good questions," Rabi said, "made me become a scientist." Source Unknown


What if we become known for the good questions we ask, instead of the opinions we offer?


What haven’t we done in our lives because of someone’s opinion? if we become known for expressing the Truth rather than our opinions?


How might this change the life of another person? How might it change us?


How might it change what we are running on?

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