Friday, January 15, 2010

Don't Judge By What You See

An interesting look at the world I came upon. The author was talking about how we judge how good or brave or whatever other attribute you want to put on a person by what they do, what we see them do. But in reality there could be greater issues of the heart at work.

Here's an example. We would reward someone for their bravery of running into battle to save a fallen comrade. We would probably not reward someone's bravery for petting a dog.

But what if there was more to the story.

What if the person running into battle had no fear. They never were afraid for being shot, they were raised to be have no fear. Meanwhile the other person was attacked by a dog as a small child and has had a fear of dogs ever since and just then was the first time they had been brave enough to get within ten feet of a dog let alone touch one. They had a crippling fear of dogs for years and it took weeks and months of work to get up the nerve just to be in the same room as a dog. With this new information, who is braver? The one who never had a problem or the one who is overcoming emotions many of us would be scared to experience?

The point is, realize that little victories to you may be huge victories to others. Don't judge someone only by the little bit you see. They may be overcoming a hurdle that we can never understand...

T

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