Often we come across some people that question us as people. Often people just want to understand us as people. However that being said there are people that have no good intentions when they make it a point of being harsh with others. Understanding that many people lash out at others because of their own insecurities and not because the person they lash out at is out of line. Case in point I add to this my own life experiences. I had my issues with self and had to work past it. I spent a few years ago doing the best I felt I could in work and church stuff.
I found often when
problems came up some would blame others for the things that went wrong. I
would often see many of these people plainly blaming others for their own short
falls. These problems would over time work out somehow and these persons didn’t
go to those they had blamed to make amends. Thus we see more of the human short
fall of pride. I did at one work place I had have in the past a supervisor that
I feel to be one of the best at handling not so good of situations , conflict,
and was so good at swallowing pride he could make you feel good about a
reprimanding. He would many times go some place first to blow off steam before facing
the issue and confronting persons involved. Needless to say he gained respect
from others every place he went. He gave me a great comparison for what a great
boss is as to one that could improve. Lesson to be taken from this is pride
sets people back from being able to relate to others. To this day I have the up most respect for
this boss for being real and not puffed up with Himself. Many of the bosses
that could do some improving made expectations for others higher than they
would hold for themselves. Expecting surreal expectations of others and then
blaming them for not achieving what they wanted. Example would be expecting
someone to climb a rock climb rated at 5.14 knowing that it is craziness and
being upset that they can’t seem to get four feet of the ground. The person
setting the expectation having only the ability to climb 5.5 and struggling
greatly at even that.
Many people know the issues in my life and know that me
leading a group or standing out is way out of it for me. I was put in with the
young men in church about eighteen or so years ago. Incidentally I ended up in
helping with them for about fourteen years. In the time I was in there I
struggled with doing what I could. Never feeling that I was ever doing the job
as good as it should be. I remember the help I was given well. One of the
assistants that worked with me was a mostly in active member who was more than
willing to help and fantastic in the out of doors. Those young men looked to
him as a friend and leader. There were many that criticized us for allowing him
to help because they felt his issues with activity to be a problem with the
young men. In the six ish years that he helped us, he kept his visible issues
out of sight. In that time he let the young men know that often we make life
choices that set us back from being better people. They (the young men) to this
day when they talk to me have love and respect for him. A few years ago, just
before being released from the calling with the young men, I was confronted
again by another individual. They must have had an issue with me being straight
up and honest about how life is and our choices affect us. I would doubt highly
that they knew very much about me personally, what may have been said to the
young men, and in what lesson it may have been used. However I just told them
they should pay a visit to the bishop if it was a problem. Knowing the bishop
had a really good idea about me and would most certainly handle it well. The
bishop and I had had many a good conversation over the past few years before he
was the bishop as to the life choices I had made and why. I could have taken
some offense to this however; I will not allow others to willfully throw me
down the stairs. Being called a “Bad influence” would very well be all it would
take for some else to have walked away from anything (including church) and
never looking back. This adds another spot for some ideas I will further write
about and post at some point, blind parenting and living with blinders on in
happy valley.
I have to think of
the reason that we treat others poorly and what comes down to is pride. The
pride I speak of is not the same as being say proud of someone, like one of our
kids that do great things. But the pride that is the destruction of people,
families, governments, and nations. This type of pride drove many a person to
kill others, have unspeakable secrets, and works that can only be of the great
Dragon himself.
It is because of pride that Cain killed Able, which
keeps groups of people in bondage for years to unsavory tyrants, and plagues us
today as families tear families apart. We fear man more than God and we have
lost sight of the value of the lives of us and others. Rome built itself in
greatness centuries ago upon the fear of man but destroyed itself from within
with pride. They were too worried about how they looked in front of their
neighbors that they lost sight of themselves. John 12:42-43 puts in straight up
terms. 42 ¶Nevertheless among
the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue:
43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Thus we must change our thinking and hearts to that of what God has in mind for
us.
I hope and pray that we can treat others relying on the
guidance of the spirit of good. We need to treat others better than we treat
ourselves and most certainly expect more of ourselves than we do of the rest of
the people around us.
