Be a rainbow

Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud. - Maya Angelou.

There is a country music song that has been at the top of the charts for months now called “Humble and Kind” by Tim McGraw and is heard every hour on most country stations. The song’s strength is the simplicity and directness of its message: “Hold the door, say please, say thank you / Don’t cheat, don’t steal and don’t lie / I know you’ve got mountains to climb / But always stay humble and kind / When the dreams you’re dreaming come to you / When the work you put in is realized / Let yourself feel the pride / But always stay humble and kind.” I don’t know if we show enough kindness to each other in today’s age of paying more attention to our cell phones than to the person in front of us.

Have you ever acted kindly outwardly toward someone while inside you’re negatively judging them? Have you ever been extra nice hoping it would get you what you want? For instance, perhaps you act incredibly kind to someone who you feel hurt you just so you can prove that you are the “bigger” person. We all heard the saying “Kill them with kindness” but true kindness comes from our heart, not our head. "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." - Mark Twain

A person I know was complaining how she was being treated rudely by a convenience store clerk where she gets gas often. Within a couple minutes she was being encouraged to kick the clerk’s behind, cuss the clerk off, report the clerk to her boss and even told to forget about it, maybe it was a bad day for the clerk. One thing I noticed was how no one pointed out that maybe it was the way the clerk was being treated herself, after all, aren’t sales clerks supposed to take verbal insults or lose you as a customer? This last sentence I say with sarcasm; I don’t think that being kind to everyone means that we have to be a pushover. If someone is behaving horribly, we don’t have to put up with it. We need to remove ourselves from the situation, or report their behavior to someone else like a manager if we really feel insulted by the person’s actions.

But what if we are really the one with an attitude? We really don’t know why we’re being mean or angry or jealous, we’ll just do it. And then we’ll probably justify ourselves by pretending that it was entirely the other person’s fault, especially if that person happens to be a store clerk or someone who works for the public. Don't wait for people to be friendly, show them how. To be able to show grace is a tall order. Grace is something we do not deserve but receive in ways that are abundantly freeing. When we offer grace to someone who can never pay us back, it is real. Be a person, that not only is graceful in life's moments of upset, but in addition, be the person who shows others what true grace is all about when they least deserve it. “In a world full of people who couldn't care less, be someone who couldn't care more.”- Author unknown