They used to tell us in prep school that ‘ those who know better, do better’’. It was often used to get us to have decorum and pride . We were to pull our uniforms over our knees , cross our legs and speak proper English … I don’t think I learned any if those ..
As I got older I put my own meaning to the phrase because it never served me nonetall.
I had to speak to someone about an absentee parent who was now gravely ill and had no one to care for them . The only person the neighbors could get to was the son he abandoned . This man was a community leader and fierce philosopher so his son had a very hard time reconciling the abandonment because he felt like his father was intelligent enough to know not to abandon his child .
My immediate response was that ‘’ those who know better do better’’.
I was asked why I said this and the man was quite intelligent and so forth..Yes he is intelligent but he didn’t know the gravity of his actions and that one day he would need the child he abandoned . If he knew and could see his future he would make amends and do the right thing from the start . And yes , he knew he was wrong for not taking care of him but he didn’t see that his own actions would leave him lost , stranded and without a true next of kin.
Sometimes we tell lie and do this that appear to fix things temporarily not knowing the act we think as a simple lie a , taking what doesn’t belong to you at that time is just a feel good moment. God sees and knew exactly what made you do it and already parceled a punishment befitting the gravity of what you did.
I reminded the young man even though I’m not a Christian to remember the story of David and when he made Bathsheba’s husband lose his life because he wanted her.
When confronted by the prophet he quickly said that a person guilty of such and act deserved to die because it was a deep betrayal ..only to find out that the culprit was him.
He caused a man to die, not having a wife and a family to bury a family member . That grief he didn’t think of then.
His only thoughts were on getting rid of the man to take his wife.
This is how we are humans , we do thing to feel good and pacify our emotions but do we truly know the gravity and effects of our actions ?
If we knew them , would we still do them?
In knowing this it allows us to easily forgive them …because they know not what they have done..
You took what’s not yours depriving a family of a future ..making it harder for their children to succeed .
You lied on a person because you have been jealous of them not knowing that that lie caused so much loss. It will cause you to lose everything you ever had and hold dear.
So for me , I now charge it things to the game of.. ‘they don’t know better’ because if we truly did know what the future held we would make all of our wrongs right and make the correct choices..
And because we now know that we don’t know better…we must take the time to watch all our steps ..taking into consideration how our actions will affect us negatively in the future.