THE BEDOUIN TRIBES who live in the desert have a story they tell their children that can teach us a great deal about how we make decisions…

According to the story, there was once a man living in the desert with his family. He saw a cloud of dust and sand approaching from the horizon and said to himself, “It is a terrible beast coming to eat me and my family!” As the cloud of dust got closer, he saw that it was actually a man dressed in black on horseback. He then said to himself, “It is my enemy, coming to take over my well!” He went to get his rifle to defend himself. The horseman got closer and the man could now see the rider clearly through the sights of his rifle. He recognized the rider and said to himself, “No, it is my brother.”

The three lessons of this story are:

1. What we focus on determines what we believe.

2. What we believe determines what we expect.

3. We tend to see what we’re expecting to see. Daniel R. Castro, “When Heroes Are Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” Critical Choices, 35-36

What are you focusing on?

“There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Numbers 13:33

Mike Benson