forward: What’s Your Story?

I have been think­ing a lit­tle the last few days about how much dif­fer­ent each person’s life is, while still being basi­cally the same.  I also blend into my thoughts the idea that every­body has their own story, and how care­ful we should be before we judge or accuse some­one of a wrong­do­ing or a mis­step in their deci­sion mak­ing, since we may not know their story or how they got to that decision.

With this in mind, I’d like to reprint my story from Sep­tem­ber of last year, in the hopes that those who have just begun read­ing here will get the infor­ma­tion they’ve missed, and that those who have already seen it will be encour­aged again.

Every­body has a story.

Each per­son around you is writ­ing a chap­ter in their story every sec­ond of every minute of every hour of every day.  Each per­son has a time­line that they are trav­el­ing through.  For many of the peo­ple you inter­act with daily, your place on the time­line is not the same as some­one else’s place on theirs.  Every­one is tak­ing life at their own pace.

When you inter­act with some­one, real­ize this — your story of how you got to this very moment is not always pub­lic knowl­edge.  You have your own thoughts, desires and pas­sions that shape your reac­tions to dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ences that you’ve had.  Not every­one around you has had that same set of expe­ri­ences.  And you have not likely had theirs, either.

As you write down your story — based on the deci­sions you make and your reac­tion to things around you — bear in mind that what may be the last straw for you, on your time­line, may not even be an issue in some­one else’s jour­ney.  So before you get mad, con­sider this — does the per­son you’re about to respond to under­stand where you are and where you’re com­ing from?  Will they really see it the same way you do — once you’ve made your response?  If the answer is not 100% yes, then there should be more thought in your answer.  Period.  I’m as guilty as any­one else.

Con­sider oth­ers.  Every­one has a story — don’t start writ­ing in red on some­one else’s pages.

“Let your speech be always with grace, sea­soned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”  –Colos­sians 4:6 KJV

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an exam­ple of the believ­ers, in word, in con­ver­sa­tion, in char­ity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”  –1 Tim­o­thy 4:12