As it is, people may deign to not listen to what I say – and they don’t have to, do they? - what makes you think people have to listen to you? What I say is Truth. What you say may be opinion, or it could be Truth, yet who asked you for your opinion or even Truth? You are not the superintendent over other people’s lives, no matter how well-intentioned you may be.
Wait until someone asks, or when it’s your place as with your growing children or a long-time friend who is open to what you think or when someone impinges on your life in some way. Then you uphold your rights by speaking up. You have to speak up. You may find you are not heard, yet it is for you to speak.
There are varieties of circumstances wherein it is your responsibility to speak up, even to a stranger. You could rightfully yell at a stranger who isn’t paying attention and is walking right into a car that is backing out and the driver isn’t paying attention either. You would do well to stop a man from beating his horse. It is not always clear-cut when you must, yet sometimes it is.
There is a big difference between giving advice when it is asked for and rushing in where you have not been invited. Be cautious about intruding on others’ lives.
Someone who encroaches on another’s life is often referred to as a busybody, a do-gooder. In any case, you will not be thanked. Even when you are asked, and your response differs from the one your neighbor wants to hear, you may not be thanked, for, often what your neighbor may want is your agreement and not your opinion.
In any case, beloveds, you do not know more about how to live someone else’s life than they do. You don’t know about the course and purpose of others’ lives any more than you know yours. You may love to go to church every Sunday and you feel strongly that everyone should go to church, in particular, to your church, even when someone you care about never goes. There is a line for you to not step over.
You may be a meat-eater or a vegetarian. You believe as you believe with all your heart. Beloveds, if I can give freedom of choice, so must you allow others to live their lives as they choose whatever you may think of it.
Wars have arisen from the idea that others should live as you do. Was that ever right? Styles of living change. There are phases, yet you are not a soothsayer who knows all and has the right to say. All the rules of the world relax at some point. All of life in the world is change. What woman still wears a corset these days? Once upon a time, every lady did. You get the idea. Stay out of other people’s business unless it is truly your place to speak and not your sense of propriety and self-righteousness urging you.
No one should speed or drink and drive. Everyone knows this is the safe sensible way. There is no one who hasn’t heard this before. Policemen have been given the right to interfere. Even then, fines or jail don’t stop many people from speeding again. Beloveds, why would you imagine that it is your obligation to give your well-meaning advice and, further, to believe that your advice ought to be adhered to?