This idea has been on my mind for the past few weeks, especially, after some conversations with friends and hearing someone speak about it this past weekend, so today, I’d like to share it with you! I have always been in a firm believer in treating others how you want to be treated. It has been instilled in my mind since I can remember by my parents and I am so thankful. It seems as I grow older and encounter more people, though, that this concept is foreign to so many and it breaks my heart.

Just be nice. It’s simple and seems easy, but applies to so many facets of life and can be very difficult at times. When someone cuts you off on the highway. When someone takes credit for work you did. When someone talks badly to or about you. It’s not easy in any of these cases to just smile back at or ignore whoever was responsible. It, in fact, can be extremely difficult. Especially in all the chaos in the world today, we want to respond, yell, scream, wave our arms and voice our opinion at just how wronged we were. However, why? What good does it do to throw a finger up at the person who cut us off? Where is it going to get us to tattle on the cheater at work? What makes us better if we say similar things to the person that talked badly about us? And when it comes down to it, nothing. It does no good for anyone to add bad to an already poor situations. As my father would say, “Two wrongs never make a right.” When It comes down to it, we are all people. We hurt, we love, we laugh, we cry, we have good days and we have bad days. You just never know. I’ll say it one more time, you never know what is going on in the life of each person you come in contact with. Maybe it’s the worst day of their life and maybe it’s not, but why not offer a smile, a wave or a kind word whether or not they deserve it.

Everything that happens in our lives happens for a reason and something minuscule thing you do, could have a huge impact on their hour, day or week.It seems kind of bizarre to think that such small gestures could mean that much, but that’s not my place to decide. I believe that I am called to be a reflection of God and treat everyone as He would. While each of us fails at this every day, the important part is that we do our best. To me, it’s really not difficult, most of the time, to be genuinely kind. Holding the door for a stranger, saying please and thank you, smiling as you make eye contact, that kind of stuff is easy. Maybe the guy you smiled at felt invisible and needed someone to see him. Maybe the woman you held the door for was rushing to the hospital to visit a sick loved one. Maybe your waitress you were so kind to had the worst day. I know these are all maybe’s and what if’s and a lot of people we come in contact with are fine and not dealing with a poor circumstance, but so what! Then you were nice, just to be nice and that’s even better—random acts of kindness are the best kind there is. When it comes down to it, why not? Why not be nice? It causes you no harm, difficulty or stress to just be kind to people you come in contact with. I get it everyone has bad days, and I am no stranger to that, but the majority of the time, being nice outwardly just make others happier and your own life more positive.

This world is craving people who love. I don’t mean true love, in this case, just people who love people. Being kind and caring, just for the sake of it and because it's the right thing, is what our world has been lacking. So this week, I challenge you to just be nice. In it’s simplest or most complex form. To the people you know need it, to the people you think could use it, to the people who you don't know at all or the people who least deserve it, because that is when it truly matters. You never know who you will cross paths with today that needs a light of truth, love or kindness and in the smallest and easiest way, and you could so easily be that for them!