Freeze Frame
You are either growing or dying.
What snapshot of you, in the journey of life, do you want the world to remember you? At what time in life would you like people to freeze your image, in their minds, and treat you like you were at that time?
People change. The world changes. We want others to remember us at our best moment. A gracious and merciful attitude is what we want others to display toward us. If we want others to assume the best and treat us with grace and mercy, we can encourage that attitude by treating others the same way.
To behave with grace and mercy toward others is far more respectful to their dignity than treating them with cynicism, blame, and arrogance. Remembering others at their best, giving them a break, forgiving their evil behavior and being gracious toward their weaknesses; isn’t that what we want from others?
Yet how often do we freeze a person’s image in time and treat them as the clumsy adolescent, prissy little princess grade schooler or thieving little shoplifter from that chewing gum incident in 4th grade? How often do we refuse to forgive, hold grudges and avoid the perpetrator of a minor slight from 30 years ago?
Tim
Filed under: Building Rugged Gentlemen, Real Men Don't Talk Trash by tim
Great comments, Tim! It’s so often that people make rash decisions and sometimes they are correct and sometimes they are wrong. Malcolm Gladwell wrote a bestseller a few years ago called “Blink” that explained this at length.
We all need to remember that everyone is fighting a tough fight and to we need be kind. What we do speaks so loud that what we say, others can’t hear. We preach better sermons with our lives than with our mouths and our kids are watching us regardless of what we say. Let’s set the right example and let the chips fall where they may.
Age is inevitable, growth is optional.