Friday 4 November 2011

Malice and spite.

Nicky Gumble's thought for today was from Proverbs. " Malice backfires. Spite boomerangs."
I don't always pay much attention to the daily quotes....but this one grabbed me because it is very appropriate in many ways.
If you harbour any negative emotion over a long period of time its not good for you, mental health requires a calm,  whole hearted approach to life which under difficult circumstances may be difficult to achieve.  But we do have to try.
Loving your neighbour is sometimes just as hard as loving your enemy but it is possible. In most cases.
When I was a much younger woman and not as happy  as I am now,  if things went wrong for me I tried very hard to blame someone else. "Now look what you've made me do." was heard fairly often in our house.
Now if things go wrong there's no one else to blame . I have to face up to being wrong fairly regularly.
We are all different people and we have our own approach to life...there is no one right way of doing anything....and as far as I am concerned   all ways are valid.
Occasionally on the net I read  rude,  ill considered comments about the way people live, politicians, students, news papers , there are people whose whole life consists of finding fault with everyone else. I always read them hoping that the person expressing them has at least got a sense of humour and that they can laugh a little as well as hating.
In the end though hatred of anyone or anything will rebound.....it will come back on you and make you unhappy.
Trying to be happy is in our genes..we are much healthier people if we are well balanced.
If we can also find time to express our joy as we go along then maybe other people can catch some of it...
I am in danger of sounding like Pollyanna so it definitely time to stop before bursting into a chorus of "Smile, smile, smile as you go along!"

1 comment:

UKViewer said...

Hi Pollyanna!

Have to agree with you totally. At one time, I was 'blame averse' until I realised that I needed to take responsibility for my own mistakes.

I actually found it very helpful, particularly as it can be a matter of integrity. If something went wrong within my team, I would always take responsibility, as it happened on my watch, and I had the ultimate responsibility.

I had delegated, without considering whether the person given a task had the knowledge or experience to take it on, or ensuring they fully understood what I was asking. It's part of our responsibility to enable and to empower others, but also to take account of their possible limitations or in-experience.

Now, in the church learning new stuff all of the time, it can be quite daunting, if you don't have a mentor or sounding board to 'ask' or to listen to you. So, unlike my working life.

Having said that, I know that I'm not alone - there's always someone I can turn to, just reading requests for help on twitter show's that more experienced people than myself are not to proud to ask!