So I’m sitting here in the middle of a class grumpy because my Aunt Flo came to town unannounced and I didn’t have time to adequately prepare for her arrival.
Nobody else knows what’s going on in my head (I could pass as Grumpy of Snow White & The 7 dwarfs fame right now) or in my stomach (which is actively playing tug of war with me. if you’re a girl then you know what I’m on about! If not then never mind 🙂)
Ten minutes ago I was happy go lucky and now I’m grumbling in my head. Which got me thinking. I’m sitting here looking fine like everything is great but nobody would ever guess that there’s something going on with me.
My mind wandered and it got me thinking how we see people everyday appearing bright and chirpy or normal-looking as though everything is fine, unbeknownst to us about what they’re going through; in their heads, hearts, bodies or community.
Someone may look to you like they have it all but they are probably struggling to keep it together. Someone may seem like they’re full of joy but they probably cry themselves to sleep at night. Someone may look like they’re having a great day but they probably have a really bad headache or tummy ache but you’d never guess until they told you. That’s interesting stuff.
My predicament made me think hard about how we leave a lot of things to assumption and naturally tend to judge books by their covers. But the truth is, the same way the title of a book may be misleading and in fact not be a hint of the contents in the book, so it is that you can actually never tell what someone is going through, especially if they decide to put on a facade.
But you see you don’t NEED to know what someone is going through to show them love or be nice to them. So let’s decide that instead of guessing what might be wrong or right with someone, let’s consider the option that they actually might be going through something and be nice to them anyway.
If it’s something, then you showed love the way Jesus would. If it’s nothing then at least you were nice anyway.
Originally written on 31st October, 2018
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