Painful

My friends are in pain and I'm questioning myself....is there anything that I need to apologize to them about? Am I at fault? Have I carelessly said things that have been used against them?

I am an optimist. I love to believe the best in people. I find it so hard to suspect motives, to sniff out hidden agendas. I'm naive person who pretends to not be naive. I'm not into politics. For the life of me I cannot suss out who's right and who's wrong without being given all the information. At some level, I am not a good judge of character. When people are offended at me I'm completely taken by surprise. I live in a happy little world.

What I *can* do is when problems come up, I can sort through them pretty well. I can plot a course and bring resolution. When people come to me for advice, I can help them see that they should forgive the other person, or that they've made mistakes too and they need to take responsibility. I encourage them towards tactful conflict resolution. I'm diplomatic, I guess.

For some reason, I've been under the assumption that because I have some insight into conflict I should have discernment into character. My discernment is a unbalanced and I need to be aware of that. For too long I have been trying to coach myself into having good character judgment. I don't have it. I believe too much in the good of humanity... or to counterbalance that, I believe entirely too little and suspect everyone.