You Can and Do Make a Difference
One of the main reasons people give for not getting involved in various efforts to make a better world is that they don’t believe it will make much of a difference. I understand how it can feel discouraging, when you see how huge the world’s problems are and how much it looks like it would take to change things.
Yet, I ask you to look at things differently for a moment. Do you have any idea what impact your being kind to someone in line at the grocery store had? Do you know for sure your smiling at a stranger had no positive outcome? Are your small acts of kindness really having no effect?
There are people everywhere who tell stories of how they were about to give up, or were sinking so deep into despair that they felt they could never recover, when one small act of kindness by an acquaintance or stranger gave them hope.
There are those who tell how they said to God, “I don’t believe there are good people in the world. I have only experienced hatred. If you give me a sign that this is not true, I will not kill myself.” Then someone held the door for them, helped them pick up some items they dropped, or offered to let them get in line ahead of them at the store because they only had one item to purchase, and they knew this was the sign they had asked God to give them.
You have no idea what impact your positive and negative actions in the world have. Consider these examples I gave. Are you going to be the one for whom people thank God, one whose kindness completely changes people’s perception of this world, or are you going to be the confirmation of their suspicion that no one is kind and no one could possibly care about them?
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