Old Habits are Hard to Break

Each of us has our own ways of living and doing things that, over time, become habitual. It may be as simple as the way we walk to town or as complicated as an addiction.

I know that each of us is needed here, exactly as we are, for the completion of the divine and loving plan for all. Even those that a general vote would find as failures, mean, addicts, or another "negative" way of living, are needed here - I don't always know why something that may seem wrong to so many is truely right for another. I know that it is.

Learning to accept each other "unconditionally" takes something that one finds objectionable to learn on. You can't "learn" to love unconditionally if every thing is perfect between everyone...we would already know how...

What we seem to need to keep the closest eye on is our hearts...All we can really do is the best we can do. The only person we can change here is our self.

How we treat others and our selves shows to everyone we meet. We can't help it, the truth of us comes out through our words and actions...and what others see IS what they get.

You can keep a smile pasted on your face and say, "I'm just fine." for quite a while. But some where, it's going to slip off. The truth of how you really feel is aching for someone who really cares to hear it and offer comfort...

That's what we can do for each other here, listen and care, really care, how our hearts feel...for that is where the truth of you is...in your heart.

Matthew 15:17 - Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?

Matthew 15:18 - But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

These verses remind me to look at what is inside a person and to consider why they appear to me the way they do. What thing in life has driven them to be the way they are? Why does it matter so much to me that they "change"?

Often, if I answer those questions honestly, I find that I believe the way I live is "better", "easier" or more "right" than the way they chose to be...

Which one of us can claim to understand all of life and why it is as it is? I'm thinking the answer to that is, "Not one." I have to understand that, for them, their way is right - no matter what I might think. And it is OKAY that their way is different than mine.

When your heart is full of hurts and pain, betrayals and losses, how can you feel content or happy here? When you hate yourself, how can you care for or be kind to anyone else?

Helping each other get our hearts emptied of hurtful things and filled with hope and comfort is what we do when we treat each other kindly and with respect. To truely change a heart takes the Divine Love to act on it.

All we can do as humans is to be as gentle as we can on the hearts around us. They are what they are. People have "bad" habits and "bad" ways of acting - but each one of us has a heart that is just aching to love and be loved...just the way they are...

To be careful what comes out of your heart, you have to be careful what you allow to stay in it. Try to remember your hurts and hard feelings will keep coming out until you forgive those involved and set yourself free to be caring and open again...

Don't let the looks, habits or even actions of others change how YOU treat them...offer respect and kindness to each one. Care enough to help who ever is brought to your attention as best you think you can. You may not change their heart, but you CAN change yours...Having even one person treat you fairly, honestly and with loving care can give hope to the hardest heart when it meets one who really cares.

Considering that it's only three words, it sometimes seems like the hardest thing to do, but it's the only thing that counts; Love one another.