possession Archives - Somewhat Awry

Quote of the Week: Mister Rogers

There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.

Mister Rogers

Normally I would take the time to find a witty t-shirt or a piece of art to hang on your wall to go along with whatever quote I’m feeling inspired to share with you guys, but I just don’t have it in me this morning.

I also don’t normally give you any reference to why I share the quotes that I do. Most of them are self explanatory anyway.

My heart hurts. I am normally a positive person. I always look for what can be salvaged from any situation. At the very least learn a lesson from – insert calamity here – and find a way to make our lives better from it.

Unless you live under a rock like I do most of the time you know what’s happening in our world right now. What I’m finding the most difficult to swallow down though is people’s very casual use of the things that are happening as a political hammer. It literally makes my stomach hurt. And it makes me turn them off. Which defeats the purpose of what they are doing. Or not I suppose. Like feeds off of like. But if their goal is to change someones mind to their way of thinking, it is failing miserably, at least for me. I truly believe that you get back what you put out into the world. Which is why people who are unhappy continually reap what they sow into the world. That’s a very blanket statement and I HATE blanket statements, so I’m sorry. But I also believe it to be true, so I guess I’m really not.

Be kind. Just be kind. The only way I have ever seen anyone change their mind about something is by having an actual conversation with a person. Not repeating a news report, or giving a stern lecture, or a from on high sermon that condescends to another human; an actual sit on the front porch conversation. And if you feel like you didn’t change that person’s perspective at all after having a true conversation with them – shake the dust from your feet and move on. Hitting them with your hammer may make you feel better but I highly doubt it will give you the results you want.

Having conversations that change the world is awesome in my book, but I always want to be able to take some sort of action. If you want to feel like you are actually doing something here is a list of ways you can help the people of Afghanistan. I haven’t vetted most of these, so you’ll need to do that first.

If you don’t want to help them, but you need another organization that is doing amazing work to contribute to, I love what Shades of Grace is doing. They are being the literal hands and feet of Jesus in my opinion.

You don’t have to contribute money to be a help. Our local food bank loves it when strangers show up to help.

I hope that you are well, and that you have many meaningful conversations this week.

Tracie

You can find all of the other quotes I’ve shared here.