What do each of these homes have in common? Go ahead - take a wild guess. I'll give you time to think about it. In the meantime, allow me to share my heart...
Nothing gets my dander up than seeing people treated with indifference based on race, economic class, or bias based on level of education. Perhaps that is because I've experienced bullying and abuse most of my life which allows me to recognize when others are being treated badly/abused. In our depraved world, this behavior should not be a big surprise - but c'mon folks can we not practice kindness, compassion, humility and generosity with those who have less? Why stop there...it should be indiscriminate.
I know too many people who have much and lack the basic skills of generosity and humility. I also know a large number of folks who have very little and are rich in humility, kindness, and give of their time if they can't give anything else (generosity). Likewise, there are those (though I do not know them personally) who exhibit the opposite of the folks that I do know (rich who exceed with generosity without indifference and humility as well as poor who are self-centered and abound with a sense of entitlement mindset).
Recently, I discovered that someone dear to me is being treated with indifference by blood relations. If I had hair on my spine, it would be raised up BIG time! This bulldog would be on the attack for sure. But, unfortunately, all I can give them is my attentiveness while they express the deep hurt they are experiencing. In addition, I offer what advice or direction to obtain assistance that I can in the hopes they will heed it. Help does not come if it is not asked for.
For the purpose of illustration, I will draw from my own personal experience. When I was married, my spouse's family and their spouses accepted me without question - as I did them. Once the marriage ended, for the most part, my daughter and I were essentially invisible to a large number of them. There were a few that still acknowledged our existence and invited us for visits. Once my daughter was of adult age, suddenly and without explanation, both of us were invisible or looked down on [save the small group that continue to consider us family]. The indifference we now experience does not make sense at all. We have done nothing to deserve this treatment. Are we not good enough or economically equal to them? Maybe in their eyes - but it should not matter one iota. It is sad, really. They are the ones missing out greatly and, one day when their close inner circle is gone, they will reach out and find nobody in the outer rims with open arms simply because they continued to keep pushing that group of people (including me and K) further and further away. I deeply miss those relationships and mourn them. Talk about the walking dead - and not the scary ones. Sure, I was hurt deeply by my ex-husband but that hurt did not extend to his family - they had no idea what he was doing to me.
God's Word is filled with instructions as to how we are to treat one another and I find it alarming at just how far from obedience to those instructions mankind has fallen. Either it is an air of indifference and choosing who to treat with humility, kindness, generosity, and love or just outright looking down the nose to all who do not fit in a pre-determined box! Here are some references you can look up at your own leisure as I do not want this post to become exhaustive: 2 Corinthians 1:4; Hebrews 13:16; Galatians 6:2-10; Proverbs 3:27-28; Matthew 25:42-46. The following are personal favorites of mine:
"A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water." - Proverbs 11:25
"Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality." - Romans 12:13
"...If you get rid of the yoke around you, the finger-pointing and malicious speaking, and if you offer yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted one, then your light will shine in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday." - Isaiah 58b-10
"Then He will answer them, 'I assure you: Whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for Me either." - Matthew 25:45
So, in my assessment of the pictures that opened this entry, there is absolutely nothing visible that shows each home was not filled with love, protection, laughter, or generosity/humility. Sure, in the same breath, I can say that we do not see what is contained within the walls of each home (since any one home or all could hold dark secrets of abuse and neglect just as easily as they can hold great love and attributes of generosity, kindness, helpfulness, and hospitality). The point is: we must do better. We must put aside attitudes that illustrate indifference in technicolor. We must work harder to be better towards each other - blood related or perfect strangers. Each person with breath in their lungs is deserving of kindness, generosity, help and love. Personally, I could care less if your income is $8k per year or $1M per year - all of us bleed the same.
Be blessed and (REALLY) be a blessing ~
W
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