Cheer

In Proverbs 12, verses seem to go back and forth and show opposite direction;

     Wicked - prudent
     Truthful lips - lying tongues
     Foolish - wise

But, when I reached verse twenty-five it seemed to change it up a bit.  It doesn't really show opposites, it talks about a troubled person and how we can help.

    Proverbs 12:25
    An anxious heart weighs a man down but a kind word cheers him up.

Have you ever been anxious?  It seems to change my personality and at times my behavior.  If I'm struggling with the loss of a friend, financial difficulty or some other stressful situation, I have a much shorter fuse.  I focus on myself.  Other people and their issues become an irritant instead of a concern.

But, it doesn't seem like the inflection of this verse is actually referring to the anxious person.  The encouragement is for us to be kind.  Do we really have any idea what people are going through?  How do we normally see people?  Usually their best is the mask they give us to see.  We generally don't know the needs, sufferings and failures of people.

I work at a local grocery store chain.  A few years ago I was transferred to a different location.  At that particular time my Rheumatoid Arthritis had gotten somewhat out of control and the doctors were unable to regulate it.  I waddled around this new store wincing at every step, hardly able to navigate stairs or lift a gallon of milk.  Most of my attention was to keep from stumbling, not to meet people.

Workers at this new store had no idea who I was or how I normally acted.  They must have thought I was crabby, anti-social and insensitive.  I do the same thing.  I assume someone should be or act a certain way and I create conclusions based on me and my ideas, not on them and their concerns.  This, of course, is a great indication of how my heart works.....not theirs.

Do I give people the benefit of the doubt?  Do I take a chance to visit, to chat and know what's going on?  Or, do I in some weird way, feel better about myself by making someone else a monster? 

It seems, in verse twenty-five, that it is my responsibility to return kind words.  I don't need to make any judgements, no exceptions.....no definitions.  Kindness is my only expectation.

May some one's anxious heart spur me on to kind words of cheer instead of judgements I may regret.