The Best People

Don't let the worst people get the best of you.

Save it for the best people instead.  

 I have learned that it is so easy to react to people.  They behave badly, and then so do I.  If I don't behave badly to them, it is easy to come home and take it out on others.  It is hard to leave work, well, at work.  I have wondered why it is so easy to give others my best.  To treat customers with respect and gratitude, to treat others in church with kindness, to act happy even when I am not.  But it is so much harder to treat my own family with my very best.  

It is easy to snap at them and expect them to forgive me.  It is easy to snarl when I want to cry.  It is hard to give them the best that I give to others.  So, this week, I am working on giving my best to those who love me most.  I am trying to be kind even if my day has been hard and I am tired and crabby.  I am going to choose to save my best for those I love.  Because, after all, they are the ones who deserve it.  

I can find so many examples of kindness and love in the Scriptures.  One of my favorites is Ruth, who left all she knew to go with her mother-in-law to a strange land.  I love that she told Naomi, 

And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
Ruth 1:16

I love the language of love that Ruth spoke.  I want to remember this in my day to day life.  Ruth lost her husband and everything she knew, yet she went with a cheerful heart and learned a new way of life.  Maybe, part of being my best self is to have a cheerful and loving heart.