Hope through a Kinder World

Is there a part of you that wishes for greatness? I think we all seek our 15 minutes of fame, and the fortune part wouldn’t be bad either. But few reach the heights of fame that produce fortune, and honestly, most of us are quite content to be right where we are.

Still, sometimes there is this nagging urge telling us we should be doing more, that we should create something BIG that would have a positive effect on the world. There are great minds in each generation that are the doers and thinkers, but somehow we feel as though we should go beyond our lifestyle to be someone that will impact the lives of those around us.

 

The truth is, we can make great impact through the smallest things we do. Little courtesies of holding a door open for a stranger or smiling and being honestly courteous to the harried sales clerk or barista as we go about our day may reach farther than we know.

I have noticed more people being kind to one another when I am out shopping or out about town. People are generally being nice to one another. 

Shopping at the big box store before the recent holiday, I found myself nearly overrun by carts and shoppers in a hurry to get their bounty and get home to begin the long holiday weekend. What I did not see was rudeness.

People offered apologies for being in the way, or hurrying and almost causing a cart crash. People excused themselves if they walked in front of someone looking at the endless choices on the shelves. People smiled, and took time to be polite. I was astounded at how the simple courtesies seemed to have a ripple effect among the shoppers.

The news reported much different behavior among some shoppers in a hurry for the best bargains later that same weekend, but the job of news reporters seems to be to point out the worst in human nature. They do not report on the ordinary events, but the uncommon ones that they deem newsworthy. Seldom do they focus on positive stories that will uplift our spirits and make us smile.

While on a road trip recently, I stopped in at a fast food restaurant to get something quick to eat. When my turn came, I made an effort to greet the young woman behind the counter as a person, using her name, and making a little small talk. By treating her kindly, I let her know I appreciated her as a person and not just as someone there to produce what I asked for.

Looking back at me, her face lit up as she smiled. Her joy was evidenced through her response to being acknowledged as an individual. Our encounter was brief, but I walked away knowing I had made an impact by being honestly courteous and appreciative of the young woman standing before me.

We each have something we can give, and perhaps it all goes back to that golden rule of the playground, “you must treat others how you want to be treated”.

Maybe we can’t all be Nobel prize-winners or leaders in the Great New Way of whatever is life-changing at the moment, but we can make our impact on society, and we can do it by doing the little things.

Doing the right thing never goes out of style, and who knows, we may start a trend that will have a ripple effect far beyond our kindly deeds.  As I’ve said before, you never know how far a kindness may reach. Perhaps it is the small things that together can become the BIG thing that will change this world.

Common courtesy and kindness. Let’s all share more of these through the holidays and beyond.  Perhaps we can change the world by killing rudeness with kindness. One smile and courtesy at a time.

Hope from a Chance Encounter

Have you ever had a chance meeting with someone, and afterward knew in your heart that God had placed that person in your path?

I was walking through the main hallway at church during services. No one else was around when I ran into him, a friend I knew from church. A friend, I knew, who was dealing with a deadly disease, just as I was.

He had found so many healthful ways to improve his lifestyle and health through the practice of yoga and eating well. I wanted to know this wellness, and use it for the battle I was facing. I wanted to use healthful choices instead of drugs, and I was uncertain of following the doctor’s path of medication and treatments.

But this friend got my attention and made me listen. He told me that the healthful choices would be good for me, but first I had to use everything in my power to stop the disease. He knew the aggressiveness of the enemy battling inside me. He helped me to understand that I had to first use all of my arsenal to stop the progress of the disease. Then, I could choose healthful ways for my lifestyle that would improve my overall quality of life and health going forward.

In hindsight, I know God put my friend in my path that day. I had difficult decisions to make and I needed to talk to someone even though I had not realized it. God placed me in the hallway at the precise time to run into my friend, and equipped him with the words I needed to hear.

Sometimes it just happens that way.

Just the other week I was at church, in the same main hallway on a weekday, and ran into a dear friend whom I haven’t seen in awhile. We chatted about many things, and then the conversation turned more serious. I shared with her about issues that were tucked away in my heart, and I cried and we embraced and the encounter was so incredibly meaningful and helpful to me. I hope it was for her, too. And I know God placed us in the same place on that day for a reason, to be there for each other.

Some may say things happen for a reason. Some are as assured of coincidental happenings as others are of fate. I know the feeling I have after sharing time with an amazing person who takes the time to really hear me. It is a gift. I feel renewal and connectedness, and go forward with gratefulness that I have been given the gift of friendship.

I can only hope that I have been that person for someone else when they needed a friend. The gift of ourselves is the sweetest present we can give. Sharing our time, and a little bit of our heart, spreads God’s love beyond ourselves.

As someone receives our gift of love, they will know His peace, and be ready to go forward to share love with someone else. In this way we fulfill the destiny of human kind. We never know how far a kindness will reach, and sometimes, that kindness is given to us. And that is truly a reason to be thankful.

Practice What You Preach

It would be wonderful if we could always live exactly the way we know we should. We strive to be good people and share our love with our families and the world. I am certain we achieve great success with that, for sharing love is as easy as sharing a smile with a stranger, lending a helping hand when someone needs one to open a door or traverse a large step, or giving a listening ear when a friend is in need.

 I think it is much easier to live the way I know I should when there is peace in my heart and a smile on my face. It’s when the dark clouds of anger or frustration blow in that it is harder to remain calm and keep my perspective.

I wish that I could say that I never think a bad thought or utter an ugly word, but in my humanness, though I strive for perfection it really is unattainable. We can try to live a life of gentleness and peace, and for the most part we can succeed, with practice and through prayer. But when those storms of life blow in that challenge us to the core, it is often difficult to retain our composure and to be the people we wish we could be.

We are human, and though we may strive to live in the manner of perfection it truly is a goal we will never reach. We will fall short, and afterward wish we had the perspective of hindsight before we lost our cool.

We are emotional beings, fraught with intense feelings that are challenging to control. It is so  easy to simply react to a situation, when it might be better to take a moment to breathe and think and perhaps provide a more helpful response. And it isn’t only our own emotions we must deal with. When we face the complex people in our lives sometimes even as we pause to breathe they explode in their emotions and our natural reaction is to fight the assault!

There are times when we wish we could take back what we have said. And there are times when we never should have opened our mouths in the first place, such as when a conversation somehow slips too near to gossip. We realize later that we should have changed the topic rather than adding our opinion, and we are filled with regret at the things we said.

The most frustrating part is when we live most of the time as a good example of Christian living and then we “blow it” by cursing in public or saying or doing something that is outside of our character. Believe me, there will be somebody who sees or hears and questions our actions.

Christians strive to live by the fruits of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”. That’s a tall order for us humans! While we may succeed at living our lives with most of these attributes most of the time, we will fail to live by all of them all of the time.

What is important for us to remember is to keep trying. If we have the Holy Spirit in our lives, through knowing Christ and living the Christian doctrine of loving one another, we already experience many of these wonderful attributes in our lives. Gradually we will work towards gaining the ones that are hardest for us to acquire.

When we feel we have missed our mark, it does no good to wallow in our failure. We are humans and we will make mistakes. Through this we learn of our weaknesses and frailties and understand the areas we need to put our efforts into improving.

Everyone makes mistakes. It’s even more difficult when the world is watching and expecting certain behaviors from us. But don’t let that deter you from living a life in the Spirit. The benefits far outweigh the falls.

In striving to live by the fruits of the Spirit, we will be encouraged as we sense these gifts in our own lives. And as we live by sharing these gifts with others, we may help them grow in their faith as well. You never know how far an act of kindness may reach.