Just Smile

What is it about us that makes us push those people that we can tolerate and that, in turn, tolerate us? Why is it that when we get frustrated at someone, something, or a situation, the first place we look to let the anger/frustration out is the people nearest to us (both physically and emotionally). One minute you can be having a great time with someone and the next - because of a bad moment or what have you - you're ready to strangle the other person and can't stand them.

What's more is that grown people act like foolish little children and whine and complain that 'life isn't fair'. Here's a newsflash: the world doesn't justify itself. Good people don't always have good things happen to them and bad people don't always get what they deserve. To believe that is to live in denial and nothing more. So often we, as people, put on blinders to those around us and just drive forward in blatant disregard to others. Why must we torture those we laugh with by abusing them when we get angry?

I wonder if it has something to do with the hope, in the back of our minds, that those people that we scorn - the ones we love - will still love us after we've scorn and forsaken them. "We ignore the ones who love us and love the ones who ignore us". That's a quote from Luann; a good comic strip that occasionally has life lessons thrown in there.

"Why can't everyone just be nice? What's the point in being mean?"

That's something one of my coworkers asked me and I looked at her and said, "Because the world is made up of mean people that occasionally have good intentions and good people who occasionally have bad intentions. We all have mean capabilities within us, it's whether we choose to ignore them or obey them that makes us 'nice' or 'mean'."

"Badness is only spoiled goodness"; C.S. Lewis said that in Mere Christianity, and that's a very true and obvious statement. Yet it had to be said. Sometimes the truth - regardless of how obvious or harsh it may be - needs to be heard. It's our choice as to whether we open our ears to hear it.

I had another pondering while I was falling asleep last night, something that I thought about a lot last year during all my turmoil and random drama. "God only puts us through that which He knows we can handle. He never puts us through something we can't get through." I can't remember who said it, but it sticks in my mind. I keep it within me forever and never forget it. The trials we are put against are those that will build us up and make us stronger. Whether we let Satan win and succumb to the problem without a resolution or rise against it and conquer it is our choice. When all seems lost is the time when Hope is strongest.

Be a beacon in the darkness; if you see someone without a smile, give them yours.

Just smile. Everything's gonna be alright.