Advice...?

I tend to spend long hours chatting with friends and giving out some advice on occassions when they seem to need some. I take pride in the advice I give and it has many a time helped the person I was chatting with. At times though I wonder whether or not some of the advice I give is in their best interest or mine. Am I giving them advice that I myself would follow? Would I practise what I preach? It is very easy to give advice but not so easy to follow it.

Should I give advice to others? There's a very popular saying taken from the Bible which goes, "Look not at the speck of dust in your brother's eye when you yourself have a plank in your own eye. Instead, remove the plank from your eye so that you will be able to see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother's eye." It's difficult to do that. How many of us are free of enough problems to give advice without requiring any? Everyone needs advice whether they want to admit it or not. No one is perfect enough not to need any. Imagine then how hypocritical it is to tell others how to live their lives or what actions they should take when we ourselves may not necessarily have our own lives sorted.

Why then do I still keep giving advice to others? Maybe because I believe deep down inside that my advice will be able to help them. But then, that's the sin of pride. How dare I believe that my advice can actually help others? The truth is, I just can't really think of any justification for my "advice-giving". There is no good explanation that affords me the authority or credibility to provide advice to others. Yet I like doing it and believe I can help. Pride is a dangerous trap. I'm caught in the middle. If I don't give advice I would not be able to help someone in a certain matter. Then again, what makes me think my advice really will help? Maybe in the end it is just ear candy. It's nice to listen to but not practical to follow. Maybe as well it may be bad advice.

I guess the only assurance I have is that in the end it is the person receiving the advice who needs to determine whether or not he/she wants to follow it. But then again, in certain circumstances, the person asking for advice is in too bad a shape to make good judgement. The more I try to defend my "advice-giving" or explain it the more I find that I am unable to justify this practice. I'll still keep going on though. Even if I can help one person it would be worth it. As long as I don't harm others in the meantime...