Chew The Meat, Spit Out The Bones

How often is your reaction to someone saying something you don’t like to simply stop listening to the rest of what they say? Or you’re reading a book and come across something you disagree with, so you stop reading the book with knowledge as your goal and instead spend the rest of the book looking for things to prove wrong.

Often, when we run into people who don’t share our thoughts on things that are important to us, we disregard everything they say. If they’re wrong on one thing, how can we trust them on anything else?

When I went through a year-long Bible class, I was given a piece of advice that impacted me greatly. It was given by an older man. Most people knew him simply as “grandpa.” He had a very “no-nonsense” approach to life. If things helped you, do them. If they didn’t, don’t. He didn’t care too much to theorize. His advice was simple and to the point. When reading a book, or listening to someone speak, you must learn to chew the meat and spit out the bones.

By having this approach to learning, you open yourself up to a much greater volume of knowledge. When someone is teaching and they say something you disagree with, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from anything they say, it simply means that you must take what they say as an idea, and then test the idea yourself. In reality, this is what we should do with all the information we receive, not just the stuff we disagree with.

This helps us to keep a sharp and purposeful mind. We’re never turning our mind off, but we’re also never turning it on without a filter. We take information in. Dissect it. Take the good (chew the meat). Get rid of the bad (spit out the bones). Keep a sharp mind when doing this. Better to lose a little meat than it is to swallow a bone.

Now you are free to read/listen to even the most disagreeable people and still gain insight.

After all, even a broken clock is right twice a day.