A thought by Bob Goff in his book, Undistracted (p. 40). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)
Now that is good to know.
Bob continues, "It’s true, and the only ones who can’t see this are usually the unhappy ones."
He goes on, "If you choose happiness and joy, then kindness and empathy and engagement are the outcomes. If joy is going on inside of us, everyone will know because it will be expressed outwardly as kindness and caring and action in your life. You’ll be nicer, and trust me when I say this is what the earth needs more of. Why am I telling you to be nice in a book about distraction? The primary reason is because people who aren’t nice distract everyone around them. You know it’s true, and if you are one of the not-nice people, you are in fact banking on this cause and effect. We are not going to get to the important, courageous, purposeful work of being the most priceless versions of ourselves if we aren’t being nice to ourselves or the people around us. Don’t confuse 'nice' with fake or artificial. Find your joy, and you will find a reservoir of honor and respect and empathy and caring for others. In a word, you’ll be nicer to be around."
He says, "But here is something you already know: It’s hard to be nice all the time. Take me, for example. I think I’m a pretty nice guy. (I have asked around to confirm this.) Still, I’m not even close to being nice most of the time. I bet there are people who think I’m subtle about not being nice to the people around me. They see a tone, a gesture, a snarky word, subtle body language, or a roll of my eyes as signs of my disapproval. Often the people who have built a case about how not-nice you are lack quite a bit of niceness too. The truth is, we use up a crazy amount of energy sorting out other people’s mean streaks or controlling ours—wasting energy that would be better spent living the big lives Jesus said are available to us."
He then says, "Remember this: Most disagreeable people out there don’t think they are mean. They think they are right. If you are a person of faith, at some point you’ll need to decide whether you want to be right or if you want to be Jesus. Choose wisely, because you are picking more than just an argument; you are picking your legacy. If you’re having a hard time being kind rather than grinding the gears, perhaps it would do you well to push in the clutch and figure out what’s driving this behavior. We’re not here to judge and evaluate other people’s lives; we should be the ones who are cheering from the stands and waving our arms in the air in anticipation of what comes next in someone’s life. When being right gets in the way of being kind, we need to catch our breath and decide who we want to be all over again."
And that is so true, so true, isn't it? Yes, yes! #continuethought
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