The thing that I was most touched by and reminded of is that of forgiveness and the Golden Rule in the Book of Matthew. I think I don’t forgive people enough forgiveness. A lot of people that I work with cause me a lot of frustration and anger for things that they do. I need to learn to forgive them for these things because I know deep down that these people are doing the best they can at their jobs. I think this also deals with judging other people too which is definitely mentioned by Jesus in the Book of Matthew. I have always had a part of me that judges people, mostly in a negative way. This is one of my things that I am trying to work on right now is judging people and forgiving them. Most of the people that I work with, I don’t know too well since I have been at my current job less then a year.
A lot of the people I work with are great people, but it is the few that I really judge harshly and have the most difficult time forgive. This is where the Golden Rule comes into play for me. One of the guys in the bakery I had also thought of as a jerk and I always tried to avoid dealing with him at any cost. One day, I decided I would start saying hi to him and ask him how he was doing. Well, in a short time after starting to do this, he says hi back to me and asks me how I am doing and I don’t think he is a jerk anymore. His personality is just that way where if you don’t talk to him, he can come off as a jerk. By being nice to him, he is returning the favor to me. This has also worked with a lot of the customers that I deal with too. While I have been instructed by my employer to be nice, I had to fake it at first. But when I had been there awhile, I started to get to know some of the customers and started being friendly to them and they became friendly with me and I am starting to learn their names and what they are doing in their lives.
I had always been brought up to forgive people, not to judge people, and to live by the Golden Rule that was discussed in the 4 Gospel course. Somewhere along the way, I had gone astray and not too many people wanted to help me or forgive me for what I had done. Reading the Book of Matthew again had me thinking about the way I had been living for some years. As I am actively working on forgiving people, not judging people, and living by the Golden Rule, my life has been getting better. More people have been willing to help me and have been willing to extend their hands when I really need the help, especially when I am having a mental health crisis. So the impacts of “If you forgive people for stepping out of line, your heavenly Father will forgive you too. But if you don’t forgive other people, your Father also won’t forgive you for stepping out of line” has taken a new meaning to me now since I know that my heavenly Father might be the only one to forgive me for stepping out of line.
The other passages that I am referring to in the above essay are “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged; you will be sentenced to the same sentence that you sentence others…” has meaning to me that just occurred to me as I was rereading it. I have a tendency to be harsh to other people when I judge them and want to sentence them.
The last passage that I was referring to is “So everything you want people to do for you, you do the same for them, because that’s the law and the prophets.” I used to not want to do things for people, especially at work, but would expect them to do the same for me. Now, I am doing a lot more for people, both inside and outside of work, and I do get help from the people I have helped which is very nice to see nowadays.
By Michael Barth
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