“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” ~ I Corinthians 13: 4-8
I finally reached my breaking point. Having carefully and determinedly avoided the Facebook chatter that bashes, judges, criticizes and disrespects for so long, I cannot sit idly by any longer without saying something.
Everyone that exists on this earth is a fellow human being. They were brought into this world and have been blessed, whether you or they realize it, with a unique set of skills, abilities, talents, and gifts. What they do to honor or use those gifts is defined by the life they live, the choices they make, and the outcome of those decisions and behaviors.
You are also one of those people. You have been blessed with a unique set of abilities. What you do with them is how the story of your life is going to be told. You have plenty of work to do to live up to the promise of your potential, as do I. We have very little extra time to spend judging our criticizing your fellow man. Unless you have lived up to the fullest of your potential and abilities you have more work to do on yourself than you do to remind others of the work they have to do in their lives.
Whether your spiritual advisors are God, Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, or Mother Theresa one of the most powerful common examples they all brought to this world is Love, Humility, and Peace. I encourage each of you to examine any of these peoples quotes and commentaries and share with me where they judge, criticize, belittle or disrespect another human being. They don’t. Why do we?
We are a society that embraces the notion of freedom yet discourage accessing freedoms we don’t agree with.
We are a society that encourages a return to prayer and faith, yet openly practices behaviors that contradict our very religious teachers.
We are society that selectively loves and respects our fellow man, yet we expect our fellow man to love and respect us first.
In the news this past week was the finality of a hearing of a most unfortunate situation. A young man, a teenager, died at the hand of another man. These people were and are human beings. They have parents, siblings, and friends. Lives have been forever changed. The pain of that experience will live on in those directly impacted by the events that night.
The court system that our society embraces as a hallmark of one of the shining examples of our great way of life rendered its decision. This trial was not conducted or decided in the world of popular opinion, it was determined where it needed to be — in the courts. As responsible members of our society we need to respect the decision of the court. More importantly show some love, respect and consideration for the people who were directly impacted by the events that caused that hearing.
Shed some love, kindness, respect, humility and peace on the situation. If it was your son that died or your son that was freed, how would you desire the situation to be handled?
It is time we show some love, respect, and dignity to our political leaders, as well. You do not have to agree with what they say or what they stand for. I am grateful for the freedom to express our opinions. Our leaders are fellow human beings, too. They are fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, parents, and friends. They have been duly elected by the system that we defend as honorable and right. By virtue of that process they deserve and have earned the right to be respected. As fellow human beings they deserve to be treated the way we are called to act toward our fellow man.
Would you talk to them face-to-face the way you talk to them in your Facebook pages? Why not? Because you know that would be inappropriate and unacceptable.
We are all part of wonderful, powerful, and largely affluent society. We are fortunate to have the freedoms we do. We are all blessed with wonderful, inspirational role models to guide and direct us on the most appropriate way to love, live, and communicate.
It is time to put our inferior emotions — hate, despair, fear, judgement, ego — away and let our superior emotions — humility, love, peace, gentleness, respect, and equanimity — guide our behaviors. We are better than this. We are smarter than this. And, we are certainly capable and intelligent enough to do it.
Think before you criticize, judge or disrespect. Let that adverse emotion pass and write something positive and insightful instead. It will create much better energy and will draw people toward you instead of repelling them.
