Walking In One Another's Shoes

     We begin a new year and with it all kinds of resolutions.  While lots of us will pick resolutions to lose weight or get better at exercising or eliminating a bad habit, some of us will work on being a better person; maybe not getting angry so much or losing our patience.  While these are all good things to work on, I would suggest one more resolution; this one actually much harder than shedding a few pounds or watching our mouth in the car.  This resolution is to stop and look at how we judge others in our daily lives.

     Oh it begins innocently enough, we see someone having a really bad day and losing their calm and peace and we think, I’ll never be that bad. Or it’s bashing another person’s viewpoints on social media, maybe even calling them out about their opinion.  But I would ask you to do this. Put yourself in that person’s shoes.  Have you lived their life? Have you experienced the burdens they are struggling with on a daily basis?  We are all very unique individuals, we have millions of variations in our DNA, but one thing we share is the ability to be compassionate.  Compassion helps us forgive others when they hurt us.  Compassion comes from being able to ‘walk in someone else’s shoes,” to stop and think maybe that person hasn’t had the positive reinforcement we have received or has experienced a life changing negative event that can never be changed and they are still reeling from the result. 

     You know what? It’s hard to be that other person. It’s hard to live their life, but we must grant other people their opinions and ways of doing things out of respect.  Of course it would work a whole lot better if they would respect us.  It’s hard to smile and not scream when your mother-in-law critiques everything you do with your first newborn child.  “Why can she not remember what it was like to be young and nervous?”

     It’s hard to laugh off someone’s sarcastic remark about your first Thanksgiving dinner attempt.  It’s hard to walk in someone else’s shoes.

    But until we do walk in their shoes, think about what they may be living with on a day to day basis, we’ll keep saying nasty things about them. We’ll keep making insensitive comments on Facebook or not thinking how that other person may perceive us leaving them out.  Until we try to see what other people are struggling with in their lives, we’ll never be nice people.

    So, let’s begin.  Let’s not assume everyone is out to get us; let’s not assume that person who wants to do things their own way is ignoring our help because they don’t like us. Let’s stop assuming everyone has a life just like ours and understands everything we like or don’t like. Let’s try to look at what they are dealing with too and not just expect them to understand what we are dealing with.

   Put on those other shoes and walk…