The Golden Rule

‎"Our society is unraveling partly because we have abandoned the virtues that produce noble lives. We do not treat others as we wish to be treated..." Dick Staub

This is part of a quote a friend of mine posted on Facebook today and, I have to admit, I could not DISAGREE more strongly.  While upon first glance it seems true enough, the reality is we DO treat others as we treat ourselves.  We often treat them with the same contempt, impatience and disdain that we levee on ourselves.  

We live in a time when the beauty is a multi-billion dollar industry, weight loss fixes are a dime a dozen and everywhere you look you see new and bigger boobs!  We tell ourselves that who we were made to be is not good enough.  How many times a day do we talk about ourselves or to ourselves in a way that is completely discouraging.  Much of the time it is just down right mean.  Some of the things I say to myself, and I have heard my children say about themselves, would cause me to ground them for a century for saying to another human being...

"You are fat."

"You suck at this."

"You are a failure."

"You are stupid."

"I am not ever going to move ahead."

These are things we say to ourselves ALL of the time.  No one is immune. We all do it.

Instead of "treating others as we wish to be treated", we need to treat ourselves the way we wish others would treat us.  In that moment, we begin to see the value in ourselves and perhaps the value in others.

"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Ps 139:13-14