I love Joyce Meyer! I believe that when I was struggling with things in life, God used her to to give me answers and direction. Listening to her podcasts, reading her books and watching her TV show has changed my life! Her words have encouraged me to be a better person and to grow my relationship with God! She is funny, she says it like it is, she challenges me to look at myself and to be accountable for my thoughts and actions...she does NOT allow me to blame others for your problems or sadness...she is just what I needed!
I read her devotional "Love Out Loud" on a daily basis. This morning, the message really caught my attention and I decided I should share it on my blog! Hopefully, it will make you think...and act!
I will just share exactly as it is in the book....
Years ago I heard a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. In the end, Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
I once read a book about a shocking incident that shows the principals of this story at work-tragically-in real life. in 1964 Catherine Genovese was stabbed to death over a period of 35 minutes while 88 neighbors watched. Their reaction was described as cold and uncaring, a result of urban apathy and alienation. Later, research by Latane and Darley revealed that no one had helped simply because there were so many observers. The observers looked to one another for guidance on what to do. Since no one was doing anything, they determined that no one should do anything.
We are affected by the actions of people around us. We look to one another for direction, often without even knowing it. Most people will agree with the majority even when they really don't agree!
If, as Christians, we want to demonstrate love to the world around us, we must become examples to others instead of merely following the crowd!
When you have the ability to help someone, don't assume somebody else will do it. Do it yourself!
Really made me think!
I know I see many things, on a daily basis, that I disagree with and that I know are not right and may even be hurting someone...but because the "majority" or "the people who run things" are ok with it or even encourage it, I don't step up and do anything to stop it or change it! I really struggle with this more than you'll ever realize. I REALLY struggle when I see children getting hurt in any way...because I know that one, just one, unkind statement from an adult or other child or a negative experience that could be prevented, can leave a child scarred for life! Can we stop every bad thing from happening? No! I realize that! But if we see "organized" unkindness, unfairness, suffering or mistreatment and we choose to look the other way...we are not only letting others be hurt...we are sharers in the guilt...we are sinning!
1 comment:
Words are very hurtful. One word leads to another then others follow. Those words do scar. I'm 39 yrs old and I still think of the mean things that were said to me growing up!
It's taken 39 years for me to finally stand up for myself and yes that person as an adult said hurtful things to me when I did, but as you mentioned, they weren't anything in my life anyway if that Hurt them when I stood up for myself.
Thank you
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