Speaking From the Heart

I have just read a letter received, which was in my opinion really petty and mean.  This year has been a trying year for our family as a whole, in many aspects, but we have stood together and held our heads high.  Through all that has happened, our goal as a family has been to be truthful, love one another through thick and thin and not partake in or listen to any gossip.

Gossip is a terrible thing, and as someone recently said to my husband when confronted on repeating something...'it is not gossip if it is true'....well I don't think that is a truth in itself, as, and again in my opinion, gossip is saying anything about another person if they are not present....whether good or bad, but usually bad.

Over time, and more particularly I would say in the last 12/13 years, I have been prey to many gossipers and I confess I have been one to gossip myself, but as I have gotten on in years I have come to realize how hurtful and hateful gossip can be.

Those who know me, know that I profess to being a believer in Jesus Christ, in other words I call myself a Christian.  As a Christian, and trying and failing every day to follow God's commandments, I find that it is in many instances, fellow Christians who are the worst at gossiping and passing judgement on others.  I think we have forgotten what it is to love one another...for this is the greatest of all God's commands after 'You shall have no other god's before me'.

When did mankind decide that we should give out 'hurt for hurt'?
When did people make it their mission to destroy others, especially those who are or may at some point have been close to them?
When did the world become so full of evil that our waking thoughts become filled with how best to pay back the person/s who have turned their back/s on us?
When did it become 'okay' to snoop in our loved one's lives?
When did we start justifying our errors as 'protecting our own rights'?
When did the innocent victim become a part of this payback?

Why should those who are chronically ill have to suffer at the hand of one who is seeking revenge?
Why does a family have to suffer for the mistakes of one in the unit?
Why does a family business have to be destroyed at the expense of the scorned?
Why does a person have to be threatened with lawyer letters?

What happened to forgiveness?
What happened to moving on?

Where does it all stop?

We have forgotten how to be polite to each other.  People walk around daily with anger in their lives.  We cannot even talk to some people without involving a lawyer...why is that?

People talk about karma, but what is Karma?  Karma, as I understand it is the act of receiving in the same manner you have dealt out.  Quite frankly I do not believe in Karma.

I think I am what many might call a 'good' person.  I have been the best wife and mother I know how.  I have been around for teaching and homework and making lunches and lifting for play dates.   I have been a friendly neighbour.....helping with meals and grocery shopping and lifting to hospital appointments and lending out money on a non return basis.  I have given to the poor and championed the cause of the under privileged....going into the poorer areas to fetch children for Sunday School and youth and buying them Bibles and giving them gifts.   I have in the past made hospital visits to sick children in the wards, spending time with them and helping them when sick and their parents are at work.  I have taught Sunday School and been a Youth leader....and all those children that passed under my wing are still 'my children'.  I have led a Bible study.....growing together with those who came to listen.  I have worked in school tuck shops and baked for bake sales and sewn school play costumes and made chair bags.  I have given lifts to children to extra curricular activities for friends who could not get away from work, even dropping them for exams.  I have bussed sports teams and stood on the sidelines supporting every child I know.  I have loved our wider family to distraction, seeing the good in everyone, giving them all another chance...lol  I might think myself I have been a good person, and if this were the case then 'good karma' should follow me.  BUT it doesn't....so does this mean that all my faults, the bad things about me, my thoughts, far outweigh the good in me?

I believe that we live a life of free will.  We know what is right from wrong. What we choose to do, or think, or say, comes from within and how we act is what we will ultimately be judged upon one day.  I try very hard to keep my nose clean.  I stay away from trouble makers and live every day for my family.  Oh I know they are none of them perfect, but who is?  Sometimes it may take years to mend broken bridges, but I eventually do.  I am a peacemaker at heart...so please I beg of you...will you let me now have some peace.....