Missed Opportunity

Every day is an opportunity
  This is a) an overused cliche and b) an underused practice that has been tried and proven true.

Regardless of religious belief or non-religious belief I hope the majority of people believe in the basic principles of love and kindness. Whatever you believe our purpose as humans on earth is we are not here to hate. We are certainly free to choose to hate as evidenced by large things such as Hitler, war, genocide...etc.. and by small things like me in Wal Mart.  We function at our best and we are at our happiest during those times we are loving others. I was reminded of this as I often am again yesterday in go figure Wal Mart.

If I were to answer the question "what do you do when you see someone who knows you and you can't remember them at all?" by saying "I just say 'hey, i totally forgot who you are, haha! Remind me?" And they would and I'd be polite blah blah blah.
But the truth is half the time I do pretend to know them sharing pleasantries while thinking to myself "please don't ask me anything specific or notice I'm not using your name even though your using mine".

This  happened last night. I walked away and suddenly realized who that person was. They are someone I used to work with and they wronged one of my family members in a pretty big and illegal way. I was appalled that I was so nice to her. The rest of the shopping trip I was kicking myself for not remembering her and giving her a piece of my mind or at least not acting like the world is all flowers and gumballs.

Later when I got home I was still thinking about it but in a different way. I usually begin my posts with "whatever your religious beliefs are" because I want my blog to be a place everyone feels free to read and post I don't want it to be "labeled" as per my 2nd post. I've now let myself realize it may be nice to not be labeled but its not nice to be trying so hard to not be labeled that you forget who you really are and what you really believe.

I believe in Jesus. I think he wasn't a crazy man or maybe he was a little but that he is the son of God. I believe there is a whole other world going on all around us all the time that we are acutely unaware of but very much a part of. I believe the Holy Spirit is also a part of God and Jesus and that the Spirit is our only hope for discerning our way through that world if we choose to acknowledge it.

This world is the supernatural realm where angels and demons are walking and working among us day by day. Most days I don't think about it and go about my business as if bills and grocery's and all that is really going to matter in the long run anyway. But some days Its presence is so powerful I can't ignore it. Once you connect with the Holy Spirit he never leaves you. I can pray and be in the word each morning for an hour and his presence will be so strong in and around me I would literally float all day. But usually I don't do that. Even still his presence is with me guiding my steps and my small and big decisions.

When I got home and finally stopped obsessing over being nice to her I felt the Spirit. I was suddenly filled with a deep sense of love for her. Not pity for her, not shame for me but just love. God was reminding me by his Spirit that I am not forced to do anything on this earth but that he wants me at my best and that means to love everyone at all times. I forgive her, I don't know her reasons but it doesn't matter.

So if you find yourself unhappy with your life or a person, if you find you are constantly complaining and wondering what you are doing with yourself try to take all that energy and love everybody around you.

This also means using every moment of your day as an opportunity to show kindness. I feel like I am usually thinking about that at the wrong times. For example there have been times when someone in front of me couldn't pay and I didn't pay attention or realize until later that it would have been a good opportunity for me to help and show kindness. Then in guess where- Wal Mart there was a man in front of me whose card was declined. I was grabbing mine ready to swipe and excited for the opportunity when he pulled out cash! But its okay as long as I keep trying.

There was a lady in front of me this morning in Wal Mart (I go there a lot because I bake cakes and am always running out of something) was very rude to the cashier almost making her cry. I wasn't sure what went on as she was leaving as I was coming up. I loaded my car and started backing up and a car 3 cars down was also backing up. There's no way to tell who started first but we both had time to keep going and room to just do it at the same time. Well she didn't like that apparently she thought she started backing up first so she sped up cutting me off causing me to slam on brakes and as she sped by me I saw her face glaring at me and it was the same lady! I know life can be hard. I have days when I'm mad at the world but we all need to be careful of that and really start loving those around us. That woman probably is very unhappy and misses opportunity's for kindness every day.