"No offense, but..."

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times in my life I've felt like I'm not enough 'something'.  Not good enough, not spiritual enough, not skinny enough.  We all know that no one is perfect, but what happens when we extend an expectation of perfection onto others?  When we don't mean to offend but we say something offensive?  So many times we've all bit our tongues to a snarky remark or rude judgment and just let it float on.  How else are we supposed to handle stuff like that?

I truly have no answer to this, but I so wish I did.  There are often times that people close to us will say something incredibly offensive but not 'mean it that way.'  We've all passed judgment on others, including myself, and I rarely stop to think "I wonder if what I'm commenting on/thinking about might be a daily struggle for that person..." I understand honesty and truthfulness, but I think we all need to be more aware of others feelings and think before we speak to ensure we aren't offensive.  Even the smallest passing judgment can be seriously hurtful, especially when you don't stop to think about what battles people are fighting on their own.

We all have our own ideas of how things should be handled: how the kids should be raised; how the house should be kept; what fitness and eating well looks like, and rarely do two individuals agree 100% on these things, yet we almost all feel like our way is the right way and then feel the need to push that way on the other person.  I believe we should all be free to have our own opinions, but I also feel like there are situations in which our opinions are best kept to ourselves. Obviously, I could go on and on about this topic, it's such a predominant issue, but I won't.  I am going to make an honest attempt to make a serious change to be less judgmental and think more before I speak, and I hope others will do the same!