A few years ago my daughter was having a difficult time in school. Not with any particular subject, but with a particular little girl. Every day when I picked her up I would ask, “How was your day?” I never failed to hear about the antics of one young lady in her class; “she is so rude”, “she cuts in line”, “she tells everyone what to do”. Well, you get the picture.
Every day my advice remained the same “let it roll off”. I was not telling her to be a doormat, but to just stay out of her path and be nice in spite of her rudeness. Soon thereafter, I had the opportunity to speak to the girl’s mother. I asked how she was and she began to tell me how their lives had been turned upside down. Her father was in the hospital and they did not expect him to make it. She had been picking her children up from school every day, driving to the hospital and staying until the kids fell asleep on the sofa. She would then scoop them up, load them in the car and drop them into bed after 10pm every night. My daughter’s classmate was not only off her schedule, but physically and mentally exhausted. She had no control over the fact that she was losing her precious grandfather so she was trying to control the little world around her at school.
Anyone hearing this story would naturally have compassion on the little girl and give her miles of grace. I wonder…why does compassion need qualification? Often we don’t know and frankly never will understand why some people act the way they do, but knowing is not what is important. It’s how we respond. There is an old saying “hurting people hurt people”. Next time you are faced with a grumpy, disgruntled, “unlovely” person, give them your best they need your compassion more than you will ever know.
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