kennethbaucum

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