Treat Others Well

The first lesson I remember learning from Sunday school was the "Golden Rule".  Though I struggled with paying attention in Sunday school, being terribly shy and tempted by the granola bars my mom would send me with, for some reason the "Golden Rule" made it through the cotton-stuffed ears of a girl barely listening.  To this day, I can picture the little class at my grandmother's church and the words written in a somewhat festive font to make kids more interested.

Treat others how you want to be treated and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.

This is how we memorized it, anyway.  If you were a Sunday school student you probably memorized it closer to the Bible your church used, and if you weren't, you have probably heard something close to it a few times before.  I admit that daily I fail to love my God with all of my anything, so the last half of the verse might be a topic for another time (though not doing the first half of the verse would suggest I am not doing the second), but today, I wanted to talk about the words that have haunted me my entire life.
Multiples times a day the "Golden Rule" goes through my head.  It's rare that I go into a store, drive down the road or have any social interaction and these words don't come to mind.  I do my best to act on them, going so far as to do things that people wouldn't notice, or that might even seem a bit strange.  I don't go down busy aisles as to not inconvenience those already there.  I often let at least one person in front of me in the check out lines, because their time is valuable and I can wait.  I apologize when people bump into me.  I pick up everything I find on the floor so no one trips on it or has to pick it up later.   And while I often blame my social idiocy, I often stay in the background in social situations as to not get in the way of everyone's fun.
I am also painfully aware of the times that these words don't change my behavior.  The times I leave the house in a rush and feel as though what I'm doing is more important than others.  The times I drive inconsiderately, choose the closest parking spot to the door, brush past other people to get the items I need and leave. The times I get this feeling of being important and therefore my needs come first.
With these words running on loop in my life everyday, causing me to do things other people might not even think about or causing me a lot of guilt when I fail, I look at the world around me.  I tell you from one broken person to another, I'm not the only one failing.
I see blatant rudeness daily.  Social media has allowed a stupid level of bravery to appear behind the keyboards of thousands of unkind people.  When confidence increases online, these people also become more outspoken in public and the rest of the world allows it because we aren't sure how to respond.  Rudeness, gone unchallenged, encourages more rudeness.  "Freedom of speech" has become an argument for things like calling policemen "pigs" and being cruel to those around (I use the "pig" comment because I've seen it), even though "freedom of speech" is really about our right to peaceably petition the government when we see a problem without them retaliating or making laws against it.  Freedom of speech wasn't meant for cursing others.
I see unconscious rudeness more often.  Hurried schedules and hectic lives have created a herd of selfish, drone like humans that do their errands on autopilot without consideration of anyone else-- these people park their big cars in small spots and leave their carts in the parking lot at the grocery store.  A sense of importance has people doing reckless things to property that isn't their own-- these are the people that left the beaches of Lake Mac covered in garbage after the holiday weekend or those people who let their dogs poop in yards not their own without cleaning it up.  A need for instant gratification and love of the power of money has left little patience and humility-- these are circumstances like the customer who recently called the store and demanded we have someone come in on his day off to fix this man's guitar because the man was willing to pay for the service.
These are just examples.  I know I have had conversations in the past where I agreed whole-heartedly about the jerks that leave their carts in the parking lot.  However, though I have never done that one particular rude thing, I have done countless others due to selfishness or business.

I won't say the world is always rude, because we have all seen examples of kindness.  Customer service that goes above and beyond, the person who helps you pick up the pile of papers you drop, the person who bought your drink at Starbucks.  These situations make us feel good, because they ARE good.
The positives of treating others well far outweigh the possible downfalls.  While going out of your way to make someone's day better might seem inconvenient, there are a lot of reasons to do it anyway.  It makes your public image better at the shallowest.  It also makes you happier-- Michael Steger, A University of Louisville psychologist, and his team did studies where people were carefully watched for three to four weeks doing "pleasurable" activities, presented in a "you deserve it" kind of way, and another control group helping others.  The subjects had to report mood and self worth at the end of the day.  Overwhelmingly, and unsurprisingly, those who helped others had more self worth and were happier.
On the flip side, having someone do something kind to you is also a major mood booster.  I don't think I need science to back me up when I say, when someone does something nice for you it makes you feel better.
The feelings we get from kind treatment, both in giving and receiving, are also contagious.  Doing it once, we want to do it again.  If the cycle continued, imagine the world we would live in.

And like rudeness left unchallenged creates more rudeness, kindness left unchallenged creates kind people.

And kind people who do it for the glory of God will have the good seats in Heaven.