Tone It Down a Notch

I don't really know how I pulled that muscle in my leg. I guess I just twisted at the wrong time, when I should have gone straight. Anyway, it left me with a lingering pain that, though minor, is always present. It'll be gone in a few days.

That little annoying pain changes life, though. I smile a little less, and I'm continually distracted from that old sense of peace.

Who knows the people that carry a chronic pain with them? Some persons have a bad back that will never be right. Some have a bad knee or two that always aches a little. I know people with a nagging cough that never goes away. On another vein, many live on the brink of poverty, or have family relations that can't seem to get worked out.

If we could just read our neighbor's mind! If people would wear a label when they are hurting, we'd be sure to take it easy on them. We could tone it down a notch, instead of expecting them to be as happy as we are. I know I'd want that understanding for myself.

There's a lot of pain in this world. I think I'll just assume that everyone I meet has something going on that I don't know about, and I'll tone up my understanding and caring a notch. It can't hurt.

"He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22:34-40