Wanted: A Little Humility

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Someone posted this picture in a mom's group on facebook. Many of the answers were the same: hatred, violence, evil, mean people, greed, pride. My first thought was war, probably inspired by watching Mockingjay recently. 

There are so many bad things that happen every day- why? Because people have traveled down paths, little by little, that led them to do horrendous things. Nobody wakes up and decides to abuse, kill, or harm another person without first traveling a path that led them there. 

We all have bad thoughts occasionally, it's human nature. But each time we entertain the thought, it puts down a stone on that path. We can easily turn around and start a different path, but the more stones we put down, each bad thought we muse on, leads us farther down a path. The further you go, the harder it is to take another path. 

People think the strong people are the bullies, the vicious, the loud; but truly they are the weak ones hiding behind a facade. You see true strength in humility. Stories of forgiveness, turning the other cheek, reaching out to the enemy, and dealing with hard issues. 

It's easy to make a snide remark for the laughs, it's hard to not retaliate and walk away. It's easy to be with your friends, it's hard to reach out to others. It's easy to make an anonymous mean comment online, it's hard to let the mean comments go. It's easy to get road rage, it's hard to let the anger go. It's easy to yell at someone's mistake, it's hard to stay calm and work to fix the issue with love. 

A little humility goes a long way in having a peaceful life. When you realize that answering with love not anger helps solve the problem, that people are mean as a defense to their pain not as a personal attack, that everyone has their strengths and weakness, that their accomplishments do not take away from your hard work, that we need to let people make mistakes, that we need to let ourselves make mistakes. 

Humility isn't being a pushover, being weak, or having low self confidence. Humility is understanding your great individual worth without thinking you are better than others. Humility is understanding that people aren't perfect and overlooking the small things. Humility is having the strength to control your emotions and your actions, to act not react. Humility is appreciating your blessings and looking for the good in your life and in people. 

If more people acted with humility, there would be less anger, less fighting and wars, less abuse, less evil. People would be happier and have more peaceful lives. People would be more productive, really listening and trying to understand others. The world would be a better place. 

Next time try a little humility. :)