Do Unto part 4
How you treat people matters. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me"? Nah. Words can do serious damage. I prefer, "Keep your words soft and sweet, because you might have to eat them." Or, quite simply, the Thumper Rule: If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all. Because, as we see in Ecclesiastes 8:4, "Where the word of a king is, there is power..." We are kings and priests, right? What we say, what we do, affects the world that we live in. Confession with the mouth makes things manifest in our lives. Death and life in the power of the tongue, right? So I said all that to say this: When we're talking about doing unto others as we would have them do unto us... a lot of that is what comes out of our mouths. Not me personally, because I try to get through a day of work on as few words as possible, but human beings as a species are all about words. Talking. Verbal communication. And what you say matters. You can't just fly off at the mouth and think it doesn't mean anything. It does. People want to be listened to, and taken seriously, but they don't run things through their filter before unleasing it on the world. You don't have to believe everything you think. And you don't have to say everything you think. I don't like to be yelled at--who does, right?--so I try my level best not to yell at people. Treating others how I would like to be treated. Now, I don't believe that I will get people to NOT yell at me by keeping myself calm, cool, and collected. It doesn't work that way. You can't treat someone the way you want to be treated in the hopes of being treated that way. People are going to do what they're going to do. You can't control them or manipulate them. All you can do is love them. Show them a better way. A more excellent way. And, in the process, when you're giving love... that's the best way to experience love! Because love is giving. So rather than trying to get people to treat us a certain way--which you really really can't... again, people are going to do what they're going to do--all YOU can do is make sure you're doing your part. As long as I'm walking in love I know I'm doing what I ought to be doing. Thinking about others. HELPING others. Seeing a need and meeting it. Making sure I've got myself on lock instead of trying to lock other people up. Listen, if the Holy Spirit can't convict you to the point where you stop acting like a fool... what chance do I have? None. And, by the way, it's not my job to make you do anything. Right this second, when my son is 8 years old and lives in my house, he's my responsiblity. But beyond that, I don't think I really have any control over anybody else. And I don't want that kind of control. I have enough just taking care of myself most days. So rather than, again, trying to control or manipulate people... we need to just start loving people. Giving what we've got instead of trying to get what we think we haven't got. Don't worry about what you don't have. Enjoy what you DO have by giving it away. By sharing it. Don't try to get something from people. That's not what doing unto others is about. Give what you've got. That's what it's all about, because that's what love is!