“To get along well with people requires an elimination of prejudice…”

A thought by Zig Ziglar (2003-01-01) from his book, Zig Ziglar's Life Lifters (p. 190). B&H Publishing. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

How are you doing on this friendship thing? Also how are you doing on this prejudice thing? By the way, it is hard to get along with Jesus and be prejudice.

The whole thought of Zig is, “To get along well with people requires an elimination of prejudice, which, in virtually every case, is circumstantial, based either on ignorance or never having had any real relationship with those of a different race or culture.”

He goes on, “This does not mean that I'm suggesting or even mildly hinting that you have to agree with everybody on everything. To do so would be to invite disaster into your life. But it does mean that you can disagree without being disagreeable. You can disagree and yet respect the other person's right to believe as he or she believes. You can have a different opinion without denying the other person the right to have the opinion he or she has. When you adopt that attitude and take that approach, you will probably be amazed to discover on occasion that your friend's point of view was right and yours was wrong. That's a sobering thought.”

They could be right. They could be right. I never thought of that.

He says, “When you take the right attitude toward another person, you not only avoid building a wall between the two of you, but you also establish common ground and lay a solid foundation on which to build a relationship.”

He goes on, “I encourage you to replay the tapes of your life and explore the number of times people who were ‘different’ from you turned out to be really great people and had opinions with which you disagreed but that turned out to be correct. Take the approach I'm suggesting, and you will become a happier, healthier, friendlier, better person.”

So is this a problem for you?

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