I wasn’t the perfect middle schooler, but I was far from the worst. I always knew I would get a “good” job, have a family of my own, and be kind to others. When I was in 7th grade, playing basketball as a starter, there was an incident that happened when we were visiting another school and playing a game there. One of the girls on my team stole items from the girl's locker room we were using and I was blamed. And my coach at the time didn’t believe me when I said I didn’t do it.
The words you use matter. The way you listen to others matters. Your lack of listening matters. The way you treat others matters.
Because of the basketball stealing situation and not having my coach believe me, I never went to the required basketball camp that summer and I quit basketball forever, I never played again. I literally saw this girl, my “teammate” rummaging through the lockers of others, that obviously weren’t hers, I told my coach this and she didn’t believe me. Oh, by the way, that other girl, was a straight-A, goody-goody teacher’s pet …and…I wasn’t. So, of course, my coach wasn’t going to believe me.
However, I didn’t do it, the other girl did and because of this I never played basketball again.
We need to be careful about the words we say, the way we treat others, and our judgment of individuals because it can cloud our, well, our judgment.
I always wanted to go back to that coach as an adult and tell her that I didn’t steal the items-- whatever was stolen from those lockers. See, I don’t even know what was stolen because I didn’t do it! Anyways, I wanted her to know that her judgment of me affected me more than she knows.
Now, I am not saying this coach is a horrible person, absolutely not. She thought the “perfect” student would never make a poor decision and that the “not perfect” student would. I am using this story as a way to share that we need to lift others up and show up for others, even those people who we don’t feel deserve it. Being present for others, especially those who are struggling is far better than only showing up for those who are deemed worthy.
You have the opportunity to show up, educate, help, and support those around you. Every person you meet in life you are meeting for a reason. You have the power to change their entire life. You have the option to be present and act, or not. Showing up and serving others is an act we have to take, it takes action to change the trajectory of someone’s life, even our own.
Your life isn’t going to morph into the life you want it to just by chance. You get to create it. But that also means you have to create it.
Figuring out what your true passions and purpose is in life is the greatest gift of all. Life is way too short to live a life of mundane. I want you to feel that fire in your soul. It is never too late to dream and to follow those dreams. What is it that you want? What has been on your mind lately? What is God putting in your heart and on your mind? Go after those!
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