Does it ever seem that people are quick to judge? I was reading a story yesterday about a woman whose husband was in a horrific accident and was left with a frontal lobe brain injury. They owned an international business and a 7 acre farm that her husband had managed before his injury. His wife was left to figure it out on her own. To make a long story short money was fading fast and she didn’t know what to do. Through the course of events they decided to buy a big light up sign and sell everything they had worked so hard for; a boat, two trucks, their Suburban, and tractor with all of the tractor implements. All of the possessions they had worked so hard for lined up in the middle of a horse field with a big “For Sale” sign. Within a few hours the phone rang, it was an angry neighbor demanding that the ugly sign come down or he was going to call the authorities. Instead of realizing that this family was in crisis he jumped to conclusions and lashed out angrily before he knew what this poor family was going through.
How many times have we seen this in our own lives? People see that you don’t have a ring on your finger, or they hear the word “divorce” and they treat you differently. People can be harsh. They don’t know your story, they don’t know what you have been through, yet they judge without a second thought. We don’t know what is going on behind closed doors. Treat others with kindness, you never know what they are going through. One kind word could make all the difference. We can’t change the way others judge us, but we can change the way we judge others.