Wish Dish | Share Your Story

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With Love and Kindness

January 5

Scott Porter

Faith

with

(Written by Scott Porter)

Imagine a world where you personally know every single human being you encounter on a day-to-day basis. Every bystander you walk past, every driver you drive by. You know each and every person— their name, where they came from, what they struggle with, what they triumph with.

Growing up in a small town gives you a small taste of how a world like that would be.

Working at the hardware store in a town of 900 hundred people shows me the true character of people normally at their worst. Some may have a broken pipe that they just can’t seem to fix, others may have a large project or job to do but they just can’t seem to get everything together to start.

Often, those customers take their frustrations out on the first person they see, which is many times me. And that’s okay.

“Do yall have this black (old & outdated) pipe?”

“No ma’am, that pipe has been replaced with a newer kind that is much improved.”

“Well I need this kind and y’all should be ashamed to call yourselves a hardware store when y’all don’t have the pipe that I need.”

(I left out a few choice words the lady said but you get the jist.)

Everyone has bad days.

I often get extremely frustrated dealing with customers who take out all their anger on me. This post is not a rant, it’s a series of thoughts running through my head while I’m laying in bed and can’t seem to fall asleep for my life.

The thought is this—maybe if we knew, and I mean really knew, each person we encountered we would be a little more kind and a little more gracious to our brothers and sisters with whom we live side by side.

Jesus called us to love one another.

People always tell me (on my good days), “you’re too polite” or “you’re too kind.” And that’s an overwhelmingly sad comment. That statement implies that, one, because I held the door for you, you think I’m overly polite, and two, somewhere down the line you have become accustomed to people not being polite enough to hold the door for you.

That shouldn’t be the way of the world. DO NOT read this post and think “Geez, this kid is arrogant to talk about how polite he is.” I struggle with this everyday. I struggle with compassion.

It is hard for me to remain positive in such a negative world. It is hard for me to be polite all the time. But what if we were polite all the time? What if everyday we tried to be so nice to others as if we wanted to make their day? How much better of a place would the world be?

I believe our society wouldn’t have the race issues we have today if we all tried to be a little bit nicer or a little bit kinder to every stranger on the street.

When you know someone personally it’s “common courtesy” to be polite to them. Why is it not “common courtesy” to be nice to everyone? Why is there such a thing as “common courtesy” instead of just “courtesy.”

I believe Christians wouldn’t have the reputation of being hypocritical or “two-faced” if we took a challenge amongst ourselves to be a little more kind on an everyday basis. How many more lives could we reach? How many more lives could we save?

Be kind. Love your neighbor. Let’s make the world a better place. Together— regardless of race, location, or economic class. Let’s take a pledge to truly treat others how you want to be treated. Let’s save ourselves from a society that is divided. Let’s reunite our country. With LOVE and KINDNESS.

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With Love and Kindness

(Written by Scott Porter)

Everyone has bad days.

Jesus called us to love one another.

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