We don’t even have to turn the channel to the news station to understand what’s going on in our country and around the world. Most of our news we get from social media and many people have voiced their opinion and where they stand on current events, political spectrum, and so on. Normally, in past times I would be one of those individuals writing away on my social media platforms my perspective, my opinion, and my stance on whatever was going on. Most of the time it wasn’t according to norm, my mentality did not match up with many of my peers therefore causing plenty of friends to “unfriend” me. I didn’t do such things intentionally, I simply wanted to voice where I stood in those events/situations and it appeared that some couldn’t stand it, which is completely fine. I don’t need people to agree with me, I don’t need people to like me, but I would expect people to respect my perspective even though we may disagree.
Nowadays I think more than two times before posting my opinion simply because I got tired of debating in front of an entire world (since my social media isn’t private). But somehow even some of my simplest of posts get taken out of context and a small debate ensues on my wall, which I have no issue with and I tend to stop after a reply or two. Now I just look around at what others posts and begin to pray; I see how hurt many of my friends and family are, I see where they stand, I see their anger, frustration, pain, sorrow and every emotion out there. Sometimes I don’t agree with some of their perspectives but I ask God to help me understand why they feel the way they do and it’s been very eye opening.
It seems as though there is more turmoil in our country now than there was just a couple months ago, and the biggest issue that has been discussed is racism. But I’m not here to give my opinion on all the current events that have been going on, rather, I want to explain why I’ve decided to stay silent on the issue or why it seems that I’ve been avoiding/ignoring the things that have been going on. It goes a little something like this and I will try to keep it as short as possible:
It all boils down to a chapter in the bible: James chapter 3 (please check it out when you have time). What we speak will either bring life or destroy it, meaning that we will either encourage a person with what we speak or we will tear them down. Everyone wants to voice their opinion but nobody is listening, we’re yelling at each other because we disagree and we’re not giving room to come to an understanding. Which is why I had to take a step back and do what James 1:19 says “…be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” At this point, it’s not my place to speak about certain things rather it is to listen. As much as I would like to debate others and voice my opinion this is where I must stay silent for a moment, I must observe what others are saying and feeling, I must look at what I can do at a personal level to bring about change and reflect the love of God instead of causing division. Everything going on in the world will not disappear from one day to another, and this is where I will give my opinion on what we can do to bring about change: let’s stop looking at everybody else, their wrongs, where they stand, how we disagree with each other but instead let’s look within ourselves and begin there. Let’s look at what we can do within our immediate family to have peace within our homes, let’s look at what we can do in our relationship with our friends to encourage one another and stop criticizing each other, let’s look at our workplace/school and see what we can do to reflect love with everyone we encounter, yes reflect love even to those who don’t like us…if we can work in those three areas, I believe we can begin to bring change to everything going around the world. So before we can make a difference in our entire country, first let’s make a difference in our homes, with our friends and at work/school.
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