I choose to be nice.

I choose to be nice not because I’m weak, but because Christ is strong – and He is living within me.

I choose to be nice because life is hard and people have gone through some rough stuff. That person that rubs you the wrong way – you don’t know what they’ve gone through this week. This month. Last year.

People don’t just decide one day that they are going to live a life full of sadness or anger. Something has triggered that emotion within them.

The person staring off into space.

The person not smiling at Walmart.

The person that pops off.

The mom that never interacts with anyone.

The angry child.

We don’t know.

Sexual abuse

Death

Abortion

Addiction

Adultery

Hunger

Bankruptcy

Disease

Exhaustion

Just life

Keep being nice, y’all. It’s a choice. It’s our choice.

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:36-40 (ESV)