Trick or Treat part 1
I think an underlying theme that I've been a bit stuck on lately is how we treat people. Being graceful. Being peaceful. Being patient. Letting people be who they are and loving them for who they are. I want to continue that here. And I want to use Romans 14:1 in the Message Bible as my key memory verse, "Welcome wtih open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with--even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently." And I really want to focus on those last two sentences. "Treat them gently" is what we should do with everybody. Always. "Remember, they have their own history to deal with" is what will allow us to treat them gently. Empathy. Walking a mile in someone else's shoes. What's that old saying? Everybody is fighting a battle you know nothing about--be kind. Something like that. And that's the spirit of it, anyway. We all go through things. We all find ourselves--at least sometimes--just trying to get from the beginning of the day to the end of the day. Life is hard. It's full of tribulation. Life happens. Every single day. And the thing about life is that whatever is going to happen... is going to happen. We can't really stop life from happening. Life is ten percent what happens to you... and ninety percent how you react to it. Your relationship with people is ten percent how they act... and ninety percent how you react. What I'm trying to say is: You can do a lot to make things good. You don't always have to be the victim. Don't take it personal, even if it is. Understand that, just in the same way that you are going through things... other people are too. People are going through the same things you are. And different things too. Sometimes you can help people get through what they're going through because you've been through it already. Learning and growing... and being able to help others. That's why we go through things. But sometimes people are going through things that we have no experience with. And in those times... all we can do is be kind. All we can do is treat them gently. Everybody has a past. Everybody has--in large manner--been shaped by the things they've gone through. And that means good, bad, and ugly. Sometimes you go through something and it makes you stronger, immediately. But sometimes you go through something and it takes a long time to process it. To deal with it. To understand and accept and be able to learn and grow from it. And that's ok. Nobody else can put a timeline on your healing process. We're all running the same race--life. But we're not all taking the same path, or going at the same speed. And that's ok. How you treat someone--in the midst of everything YOU'RE going through--says everything about YOU and not much at all about them. How people treat you says nothing about you and everything about them. We need to realize and understand that we're all in this together. We need to realize and understand that we are all going through stuff. And we need to treat each other with a basic human decency. A kindness. We need to be gentle with each other. Because it's all about how we treat people.