Trick or Treat part 4
In my opinion, there is nothing more important in this world than how you treat people. I beileve the two most important things in the world are God and people. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. If it's all about love--and I believe it is--then it's all about treating people right. Treating people with dignity, and respect, and honor. Treating people with grace, and mercy, and kindness. Treating people... with love. And the thing about love is that it comes out from within. It isn't dependent on what people do (or don't do) for you, or to you, or around you. It's all about letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. How you treat people says nothing about them but everything about you. Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to it. You can always react with patience. No matter what happens. You don't have to freak out. You don't have to hit back. Life hits hard. But the key is to just keep moving forward. They said the best revenge is to just be happy. To not take things personally, even if they are meant that way. Because no matter how the world means it... "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive" (Genesis 50:20). Or, "...we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). If we can stop for a minute and focus on the bigger picture, the grand scheme, we will be able to see that things happen for a reason. They might not always feel good, but they are working together for good. Even when people are "out to get you" (which, by the way, I believe happens WAY less than we think it does. I think we are more likely collateral damage than the object of someone's negative energy. I think people try to take care of themselves and inadvertantly hurt us in the process more than actually trying to get us) God can use it for your good. Can... and will. Wants to. So we don't need to fight back. We don't need to retaliate. We know that our heavenly Father has our backs. He has our best interests at heart. And that's what matters. We don't need to worry about what tomorrow holds, when we know who holds tomorrow. So no matter how other people are acting... we can be who we truly are. In our patience do we possess our souls. In our love do we display--and experience--our true selves. Jesus is God in the flesh. Love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. That's who we really are. And that's how we ought to treat each other. Just loving people no matter what. Just loving people first, last, and always. Alpha and Omega. Beginning and end. And everything in between. When we hold fast to love and fill ourselves to overflowing with it... that's when we can treat people right. That's when we can treat people... like people. That bottom line basic level of humanity. "I love you. Not because of what you've done, but because of who you are. Because of who I am. Because of who God is!"