Be Merciful

“Be merciful, just as your father is merciful.” 

Luke 6:36

Judging someone does not define who they are, but who we are. We need to always be merciful, and always try to understand what others are going through. Someone asked me what was the best way to deal with conflict. God’s way is the way of love and forgiveness because we do not know what the other person is going through. 

On a post on Facebook, a teacher asked her class what would a wife say to her husband if on a sinking ship, he gets on the last available life raft seat. While most of the students shouted out mean things, one child answered: “I believe she would have shouted, ‘Take care of our children!’”

The compassion in the child’s answer prompted the teacher to ask, “Have you heard this story before?” The student answered that he hadn’t but that was what his mom asked his father to do before she died. In the teacher’s story, when the couple took the cruise, the wife was already diagnosed with a terminal illness. When the ship was sinking, the father felt, even if his heart was breaking, that he had no choice but to leave his wife so he could raise their daughter. 

Sometimes we are quick to judge others, the taxi driver who drives recklessly, a co-worker who wounds with her words, a student who copies from her seat mate. 

“Never underestimate the pain of a person," Will Smith said, "because in all honesty, everyone is struggling. Some people are better at hiding it than others.” Next time we find ourself judging another person, something I confess I often do, let us try mercy and compassion first, and grow into the person God wants us to be.