Everyone you come across in life has one battle or the other that he/she is facing. We all have our personal struggles and concerns in life .
There are so many bottled up issues inside of people that they face alone or share with few loved ones - people they can trust.
Until a person tells you what he or she is facing, you would never know or even believe the magnitude of the challenge they are facing.
Not everyone goes about talking about their challenges. It is either they believe they can face it alone, not comfortable talking about it or are afraid of what people might think or say about the issues they are facing.
There are those who have gone through so much in life to be where they are today. Some have experienced so much difficulties that they have developed shark-skin towards certain challenges and have become stronger than imagined.
Now, it becomes so easy to want to judge people who are not there for us as at the time we needed them the most.
We also tend to judge people for their inactions, actions and reactions towards us when we least expect or believe they would act or react the way they did towards us.
And yes, I have also judged certain people for their inactions, actions and reactions towards me at certain points in my life.
Life hasn't been a bed of roses for anyone on planet earth. Even those considered to have been born of a silver spoon have had their own fair share of certain challenges and still do.
When people go out of their way to be there for you in any form does not mean they have it all going well for them or have a smooth sailing life. They simply just want to be there for you the little way they can.
Each time a person goes all out to be there for you, they had to make certain sacrifices of time, material things, money, food, words of encouragement and so on.
They had to go through some level of discomfort to make you have some level of comfort at least even if they can't be all out there for you.
Sometimes, we even judge people for being there for us in little ways than we expected them to be. We had expected them to be 100% there for us or even beat our expectations because we had sized them up to be more than capable.
But when they are unable to, we judge them harshly forgetting they may also have issues they are dealing with themselves.
There are people who have the grace of going about life like they have no challenge or issues in life. They try as much as they can not to depend on anyone irrespective of what they may be going through doesn't mean they have no challenge at all.
I once read the story of a woman who gave her neighbour soured soup to feed her family with. The husband of the woman who received the soup in disgust asked his wife to throw the soup away after perceiving the rottenness of the soup.
In anger, He sold a pair of his shoes and gave his wife the money to go get some food stuffs and cook something nice for the family.
Later that evening, the woman who had given the spoilt came to the same neighbour she gave the spoilt soup to plead if she can warm her soup on their stove to which they obliged.
But surprisingly, same disgusting smell came from the food she was warming to go eat with her kids. In dismay, the man asked if the wasn't bad enough to eat and she said that was all she had and she would manage it.
The man out of compassion, asked his wife to share their pot of soup into two and give the lady the other half to eat with her kids.
The woman, despite not having enough decided to share what she had even if it was bad to just to be sure the other family had something to eat too but was judged harshly.
When someone is unable to help you or helped in small ways below your expectations,it is not always because they don't want to but most probably because they also have their own challenges too.
Don't go judging people for not being there for you but rather understand that they are not able to and be kind towards them so you too can move on without grudges and bitterness.
And for those who were able to help in little ways even below your expectations, show a heart of gratitude towards them because they may have made some sacrifices to be there for you in their own little way.
A simple thank you to someone who gave you a listening ear, words of encouragement, little cash to ease the pressure and so on is more than enough.
Life becomes much easier when we become grateful for little acts of kindness towards those who have been there for us one way or the other.
If we are only to look at our own challenges without considering what the other person might be going through, then we would be the meanest of all people. The world would have no beauty and colour.
Have it at the back of your mind that, just as you struggle to make ends meet, others too are facing same thing.
I always tell people who always depend on people or want to take advantage of others that same way it is affecting affecting them, so it is for others.
Showing gratitude does not only make the one who stretched a hand of kindness towards you feel good and appreciated, it also lifts your spirit and makes you see a better and brighter future ahead. It makes you realize, there is hope even when it seems all hope is lost.
Most of all, never fail to be grateful to God for his daily benefits on your life whether people are there for you or not. God will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrew 13:5).
We live in a world where we are bound to get hurt by the inactions, actions and reactions of people towards us.
We are in a world where we are bound to get disappointed by the people we had hoped to be there for us but God is always there to make a way where there seems to be no way and make everything new again for us beyond our expectations (Isaiah 43:19).
Quote for the day - "It is your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life's story will develop." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf
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