Some Need It a Little Bit More

When was the last time somebody made you cry?

I bet it only took you a minute to remember the hurt someone caused your heart. But how about if I asked you when the last time was, that YOU made somebody cry? Could you answer as readily?

Most of us don’t realize when something we say or do causes somebody else to shed some tears. Most of us, aren’t that cold. We’d never blatantly cause hurt to someone.

The thing is, we may cause someone to cry, without realizing it.

We are human. We get irritated with others. We get impatient. We grow frustrated. After all, our lives are busy and hurried. We are low on time and low on sleep. We don’t have time for slow or stupid drivers. We don’t have the patience for the new worker at the store. We don’t want to be inconvenienced. We don’t want to clean up after other people’s mistakes.

Yet we never know what someone else is going through. Our actions may be the last straw for them. Our words could be the fuel that lights the fire that has been burning inside of them. The one that really stems from other issues. Other hurts.

I don’t ever want to be someone else’s last straw. Do you? Even if I’m not the source of where their tears are coming from, I don’t want to be the one that causes them to boil up and over.

I want to be the one that brings healing. The one that softens the hurt. The one that gives hope.

I know I can’t always get my words and actions right. I can’t always see when someone else is hurting (although I sure hope my eyes try to be open to it.) But, I don’t want my unhurried, unthoughtful words or actions to rub someone who is already raw, in the kind of way that stings their heart and soul all the more.

No.

And let’s just admit, that we are all a little careless with one another’s feelings! We all lack a little grace and mercy to allow others the room to move about life with awkwardness and missteps.

There are streets full of people ready to cry right now. People who are hurting. People who are stifling that hurt down, trying to forge on… until they run into one of us and we don’t handle their run-in with us, with any care at all.

And so the tears fall.

No, we aren’t responsible for the origins of pain in someone else’s heart and life. But we ARE responsible for how we treat every person we meet. The one who drives next to us on the freeway, the one who stands next to us in the grocery store, and the one who lives on our street.

Decency. Respect. Thoughtfulness. GRACE. Every individual needs these things in their life.

Some, need it a little bit more.