When people cross our paths, gain a new perspective on how to make a difference in their life.
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Welcome to the Be Your Best Self Blog by Marsha Abbott.
"A Story"
We all have a story…
Some of them are good…Some of them are bad….And some stories are just awfully sad…
When we cross paths with people in our life, we just never know what type of story they have. We just can’t be certain what theirs will be. And so this past week when I was talking to a BYBS follower, I would have never guessed how her story was going to unfold. Until she decided to share it with me…
As I was talking to this blog follower, I could really see how genuine she was. I could see her learning to grow even further into her Christianity. I could tell she was just a good person all around, caring for others and being kind to everyone she meets. And so I unknowingly did something pretty simple. Yet this simple thing ended up changing my friend’s entire day.
All I simply did was tell her exactly what I noticed in her. I shared with her exactly how I see her: As an amazing woman with a huge heart. And quite literally, in that moment, my friend was shocked. She couldn’t believe I felt this way about her because sadly enough, she didn’t see it in herself. So we started to talk about why that was, and that is when she shared her story with me…
My friend grew up in a family where her father was there but mostly absent in her life, and her mother was there but was very hard on her. This blog follower would constantly hear at a young age that she was an awful child. She always heard how bad she was. She was spanked and hit on a regular basis and was never really told by her parents that she was loved. But what her parents didn’t know was that this poor little girl was simply acting up because she was being sexually abused by a relative of theirs. A close relative that the family knew and trusted. So instead of her parents taking the time to talk to her to try to get to the root of her bad behavior, they chose to just punish her and remind her regularly that she was an awful child. And then to top it all off, my poor friend didn’t even get the chance to rectify this with her parents as an adult because her mom unexpectedly passed away when she was at the young age of 13. And her Dad continued to be ‘present’ but mostly still absent in her life.
My friend’s story is sad. Actually, it’s awfully sad. And decades later, because of her story, she still feels that she is not worthy and never good enough. She still strives every single day to be a good person, yet no matter what she does, she still thinks she isn’t.
So her story got me thinking -- How many others out there have had a similar story? How many people living in this world have a sad tale to tell? I am sure it is more than we can even imagine. This world has more evil in it then I like to admit, and so how can you help to change that course of evil? To take a bad situation and make it better? How can you make a difference in someone else’s life? How can YOU make a difference in this world?
The answer to this is as simple as what I unknowingly did that day with my friend.
I simply told her exactly how she is seen through my eyes -- as this amazing, kind-hearted woman. And when I said those words to her, you can probably imagine her shock. The look on her face spoke volumes. She couldn’t believe that I saw this in her because she couldn’t see it in herself. So in that moment, I knew what I needed to do. I shared with her, in even more detail, all of the amazing things I see in her…that everyone sees in her. We talked about how passionate she is with her faith, and how she is living a life worthy of any Christian. We talked about her big heart and her compassionate soul. We just talked and talked…about how great she really is. As our conversation came to a close, she thanked me for sharing all of this with her, and I could see from her smile that she felt happier in that moment. So like I said, it ended up changing her entire day…for the better.
We often hear the words, “Be kind…you just never know what someone else is going through.” And I have to say, this BYBS Blog follower taught me just that. So as you go about your life, realize that YOU too have the ability to make a difference in this world. You can have an impact on others without even realizing it. And it’s as simple as looking for the good in others and sharing with them the great qualities that you see. Or it could be as simple as a smile for a stranger or a kind word to someone you just meet. It’s simply about letting others know how they make this world “shine”, how they make it a better place. It’s about making them feel as special as they truly are. It’s about being that positive energy that so many need.
So we must always remember that with every person we encounter, their story could be good, it could be bad, or it could be just awfully sad. But here is the thing…we all have a story to tell, and so being kind is the BEST thing we can do because you just never know what someone has been through. You just never know what their story will be…
*For those of you struggling with something in life or have a topic of interest that you want me to talk about in this blog, email me at BeYourBestSelfBlog@gmail.com. Let’s work together to Be Our Best Selves!