When people share with me about their religion and beliefs, it can be fairly challenging sometimes.

Especially when those beliefs are the total opposite of what I consider to be true.

In the past, I used to find myself in endless debates, and do everything I could to prove the other wrong… using logic and rational arguments.

It never worked, and only created more frustration, on both sides.

How could I possibly convince anyone, using logic, about something that was emotional?

And then I asked myself the question: why would I like others to change their mind in the first place?

What if their own beliefs are making them happy, and they don’t actually need me to “help” them?

Who was I to tell people what was right for them?

I was in my teenage years.

I loved to question and challenge everything that didn’t make sense to me, and then tried to change people’s mind about it.

I still do this today, but I now use people’s opinions to feed my curiosity, understanding and perspectives, rather than trying to convince them that I’m right.

At the end of the day, we don’t grow much from winning a debate or “being the one who’s right.”

What makes us grow, is when we accept to receive other people’s ideas, beliefs and opinions without any judgement.

When we keep our opinion for ourselves, and keep asking genuine questions, with no other agenda than truly understanding.

Yes, it is challenging.

But I realized over the past 3 years, is that understanding others better leads way further than proving them wrong.