Wednesday, August 7, 2019

A Little Kindness Please!

It takes children to redirect us to goodness sometimes. Some Kindergarteners in Florida thought up this kindness project and are trying to make it a national symbol.  Our nation could truly need reminders to be kind to one another!   Click on the link below and see ideas for how to be kind to others and let us get our United States neighbors being kind to one another especially this upcoming election year!

TogetherKind project

Let us be kind

It's Civility Homework Time Once Again...


   Ah...another ugly reminder that my mouth can get me into so much trouble when I forget to keep thoughts to myself.  This morning one of my co-workers brought over three of the hard bound hymnals from church. One of them was torn, another had it's reading ribbons yanked out and ripped to shreds, another had pages torn inside.   He told me an adult in the back of church saw another adult do this damage while Mass was going on. An adult, not a child who may or may not know better, but an adult who was there for Mass was destroying not one but three hymnals.
    And my reply was, "oh, I hate people!"
    Yes, it was an ugly thing for me to say. It was in the heat of the moment of frustration. I had just repaired over one hundred of these hymnals just last week and replaced them in church. What was wrong with people?  I do not excuse myself from these thoughts and I am especially chagrined that I let go my frustration in my outburst.  I do not hate people, but I truly do not understand many of them!
    I guess I tend to think that everyone should be mindful and respectful of other people. Yet every day I see and witness the lack of respect some people seem to have for other people. Even many politicians cannot refrain from ugliness in their social media posts.
    Several years ago I worked on a Civility project trying to encourage people to be civil. I mostly used it as a tool for myself to remember to be civil towards others.  Obviously I still need to work on myself as witnessed by my outburst about the hymnals. But I realize it is something we need to work on each and every day. You can't wake up one day and be totally cured of selfishness or lack of respect towards others. You have to work at it.
   A better reaction to the hymnal destruction would have been, "wow that is sad that someone is upset enough during Mass to destroy church property." and to have said a prayer for that person and even watch for them to come again and ask if there is something that they need help with.  I'd like to think I could be a person who would do that. So I think I need to begin with my own civility project again...work on my attitude of civility towards others.
   We all learn by example and my own example could be much, much better.  I do better when I have a goal in mind or a set number of days or weeks to improve on something. But civility takes a lifetime of work and it never stops. There is no ending date where you don't have to worry about being civil any more.  The end date for civility as well as loving your neighbor is probably when we die. If we haven't learned much by then we're in trouble.
    Lord, please give me the grace to see my faults and failures and not quit because of them. I have so much more to learn.