What comes around

When is the last time you wrote your wife a love letter? No, I’m not talking Wordsworth or Byron, (although, kudos to you if you did!). I’m talking about a simple note, poem, letter–heck even an unexpected text (I may be reaching to far for flowers or chocolates) to tell her how much you appreciate her, how good she looks, or how much she means to you. How about the last time you said something nice (I’m not talking about “hello, good morning, how are you” or “thanks”) to your secretary, assistant, or co-worker? Again I’m not talking about getting a sexual harassment suit started (male or female BTW!), I’m talking about telling her/him how much you appreciate them running interference for all those calls you know you don’t want to take, about trying to help you manage your whirlwind existence, about not “losing” your important phone messages.

Sometimes we are polite (too often not!), but we tend to take people in our lives for granted. We assume they are happy because they’re still there or simply don’t complain much. These people closest to us often catch-all the garbage of our day, all the grief…kind of like a filter so that the rest of the world can have our best. Then they get what’s left over. How fair is that? I know some of these people get a paycheck (wives get the credit card!), but is that really enough to offset all the crap we deal them on a daily basis? I’m not saying that we’re horrible husbands, bosses, co-workers or whatever; I am saying that a little kindness, encouragement or uplifting word never killed anyone (as far as I know, anyway). We all love it when someone makes an effort to notice something good we’ve done instead of always pointing out our flaws or shortcomings. Shouldn’t we really try to emphasize the good now and then? There’s always plenty of bad going around.

I’m willing to bet that if you put forth a little effort in trying to be a bit more thankful, those people around us will notice and hopefully mirror your efforts. Then maybe our grumpiness gauges will take longer to fill and we can enjoy our days just a little bit more. It’s worth a try!

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other” Eph 4:32

“Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.” Col 3:12-13

“Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.” 1Thes 5:15