What glasses do you wear? compassion, kindness, judgement

[Thelmama]

First and foremost I must preface this with the statement, YES I am a Bible believing, born again Christian. Faith and Jesus is everything to me.  My faith influences everything about my life.

People judge others.  It is a fact of life.  We all make judgements based on our life experiences, our up bringing, things that have happened in our lives, be it good or bad.  We have heard the statement that some people view life through rose colored glasses.  However, the reality is we all view life through some color of glasses.  Some people's glasses are colored with pain and darkness.  Some people's glasses are cracked and broken.  Some people view through shades of green from envy.  Some view through hues of blue because of sadness and some view through a mixture of many colors.  No one, not one person views life through totally unobstructed clear lenses.  Our view is always colored by something.  Some of us once viewed life darkly but faith and love have changed our view.  Some of us want our view to be changed but do not know how to get there yet.

 

Compassion colors our view with empathy for each other.  Empathy is the ability to feel ones pain without being overtaken by their sorrow.  It is being able to understand where they are coming from or at least being able to understand that they are experiencing pain. 

 

When we judge others without compassion or kindness we see life without light. Kindness has many faces but at the root of all kindness is compassion.  Judgement with compassion means being able to have an opinion about something without passing judgement on someone.  It is what enables  us to have differences in view point and belief and still treat others with respect.

 

I am not nor will I ever be perfect.  But I try to wear glasses of compassion and treat all people in that light.  If I disagree with someone, be it my husband, my child, my friend, or a friend on the Internet, I have to choose to wear compassion.  I have been ridiculed in the past by not being realistic.  But compassion is realistic.  Kindness is realistic.  I hope and yes, I pray that I always wear glasses cleaned and lightened with compassion.  I hope and pray that even when my opinion is different than others I respect them for their opinion and don't judge them and find them lacking. 

So may my view of the world always be colored with compassion regardless of the view I was given by and in this world.

[last-minute-mom]

Mar. 31, 2010 at 8:52 AM

What precious thoughts!   Bless you, Sister!