I walk by someone and think, “wow, they look great!” I talk to someone and they seem so happy. I become frustrated with someone because they aren’t “moving fast enough for me.” What I don’t take the time to realize or think about is “what are they going through that I don’t understand?”
It reminds me so much of the song by Sawyer Brown titled They Don’t Understand. I was also reminded how I can quickly judge and not really understand what someone is going through during my Transformation Table this morning and the lesson we had on “Valuing Other People.”
It is so easy to go through life making assumptions and not taking the time to truly value and understand people. Like Sawyer Brown’s song says, “you never know what someone is going through.” Take my friend Kim for example. When I see her at church, she looks fit and thin and BEAUTIFUL. What you don’t know is that she lives in starvation mode most of the time, on a feeding tube and in and out of surgery. But, she is high in spirits and beautiful on the outside. Without taking the time to listen and understand what she is going through, one could make the assumption that she is DOING GREAT!
We need to take the time to understand people. Don’t make the assumption that just because they look great on the outside that they are “perfect” or don’t have struggles of their own. When I wrote about envy yesterday, I have to laugh today, because often we “envy” someone because of what we see or what we read, but in reality, if we took a deeper look inside of them, they are struggling too. We just haven’t taken the time to understand what they are going through…we only see the outside.
In part of our lesson today during our Transformation Table, we are challenged to value everyone. It is easy to envy those that have what we think we want, but how about valuing those that don’t have what we want? How about the homeless person -- have we really thought about how they got to that point? How can we value them? Do you treat people differently based on their status, looks, or position? Do we value everyone equally? That’s a pretty tough question/action for most of us…because the answer is no, if we are truly honest with ourselves.
Today, take the time to get to know someone and show them you value them. Don’t make assumptions. People need you, even if they look great on the outside -- or don’t!
If you haven’t been through a Transformation Table, I would STRONGLY encourage it. They are life changing. They will transform your world and your thinking and challenge you to live at a higher level of kindness, empathy, and forgiveness.
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