Think before you Speak

If you know me at all, you probably know I can get quite fired up about things that bother me.  I am notorious for getting offended on behalf of others, even when they themselves are not offended.  It's coming from a good place though.  I just don't like the people I care about to get hurt.

Recently, Brady and I were talking about something where I was offended on behalf of someone else.  Brady wasn't all that interested in the conversation and in an attempt to get me to move on, he said, "It doesn't matter what you think, they are going to do whatever they want anyway!"

Much to his dismay, I was offended by his statement and proceeded to vent for another 5 minutes.  Why is that?  Well, because what I heard was, "your opinion doesn't matter, you aren't important enough for them to care what you think."  In 2 seconds a non-personal issue became personal because my value came into question.

So this made me think.  How many times have I said to someone, "It doesn't matter what you think...blah blah blah."  How rude is that comment?  There's gotta be a nicer way to say that, or a way to say it where it softens the blow of the reality of the words.

Here are some nicer ideas:
They are probably going to do what they want no matter what anyone thinks.  This option makes it less personal.  It's not that your opinion doesn't matter, but everyone else's as well.
They don't seem to care about other people's opinion otherwise...
They don't seem interested in what other people think.
They have the free will to do what they want and we can't change that.

Sitting here now, I can think of at least 5 different instances where someone has said to me, "They don't care what you think," and how those six words instantly offend.  I know I'm going to be avoiding that statement along with it's cousin, "I don't care what you think."  However, I don't know if there is a nice way to say, "I don't care what you think."  Hmmm... Gonna have to think about that one.  Comment away if you have a nice way!

XOXO,