Do you feel like it’s harder to be nice these days? Some people today are extremely negative, extremely hurtful and extremely vile. Some people today throw niceness back in the face of those who extend it. Some people today make being nice awfully hard. Be nice anyway!
When your own family members let you down, say things that hurt, forget to do things they promised to do, ignore your efforts to show kindness, dump everything on you and expect you to handle it all, fail to do their part with household and family needs, act one way at home and a completely different way at church, don’t seem to trust you, make selfish decisions…be nice anyway!
When your friends—even some friends that you thought were your “good friends”—disappoint you, make choices that slight you, treat others better than they treat you, are not always consistent, seem to be hot or cold around you without explanation, talk about you behind your back, choose to hang out with others instead of you, befriend some folks you don’t particularly like, forget special days or special events, seem to ignore your messages…be nice anyway!
When your coworkers lie about you, cheat to gain an advantage over you, laugh at you, cuss you out, take credit for something you did, refuse to uphold their responsibility, leave messes for you to clean up, turn people against you, manipulate the system against you, are hateful toward you, ostracize you, make things as difficult as possible for you, think they can walk all over you because you’re a Christian…be nice anyway!
When your own church family members—the very ones who should know better—seem to avoid you, have been rumored to spread gossip about you, are obviously acting hypocritical, say things that cut you to the core, try to act like they were “only joking” when they hurt you, don’t invite you to something when they’ve invited “everyone else,” seem to refuse to respond to your efforts to contact them, dishearten you, don’t do what you think they should do…be nice anyway!
When people in the world mistreat you, mess up your food order, cut you off in traffic, cut you in line at the store, take forever to check out at the store, lie about you online, steal from you, lose something that belongs to you, find satisfaction at your misfortune, refuse to do even the smallest thing to help you, insult you, exploit you, capitalize on your mistakes…be nice anyway!
Are you kidding? Be nice anyway? Why? First, it is what Jesus would do! Second, it is actually what Jesus did! Third, it is what the Bible teaches us to do (Rom. 12:14-21)! Fourth, it is the only way to go to heaven (Matt. 5:11-12)!