Congratulations.

Today I became occupied with something that allowed my mind to wander. And because such a situation came about, I thought back to a recent social gathering that I attended not too long ago. I overheard a man who is twice divorced, congratulate a newly engaged woman. Although he congratulated her, what I heard was more like "My Condolences." I sat in the floor thinking, as I toiled away at the task at hand, about how a congratulations for becoming engaged from someone who is twice divorced could be taken almost as an insult.

If I were the one being congratulated by that man, I would be under the impression that he isn't sincere. Not that he means to be insincere necessarily, but because of his experience with marriage, I would not feel that he means to congratulate most sincerely, as that man is very likely biased tremendously against marriage.

On the opposite side of this I would take a pastor's congratulations whole-heartedly. Let's assume of course that the pastor in question is indeed a just man with no secrets. This man has the authority to bring a man and a woman together in holy matrimony. So to be congratulated for it from a pastor would leave me less skeptical of the possibility that the man has biased thoughts behind his eyes and in congratulating me he would also vicariously be giving me his blessings.

Now that I've gone through this social scenario, I have come to the conclusion that this is not the most just of thinking. For in thinking this way I have faltered in that I have judged the person who gave the congratulations. Perhaps it's not so important a thing who is giving the congratulations, but just that they are giving the congratulations. But in my human nature it is hard not to have such thoughts regarding the sincerity of someone who is giving their congratulations.