Saturday, December 12, 2009

Don't judge a book by it's cover.

I don't know why I feel compelled to do this post, but I do. I've heard so many stories about people who are the nicest person in the world, but are a completely different person behind closed doors.

I want to thank Ashley for letting me use part of her post here, she shares this story-

"People who only knew the parent socially thought she was a lovely woman whose wicked son never visited her and didn't care about her and her health. Tongues wagged about his lack of compassion and empathy. "Very un-Christian" was the general agreement.

"I knew her son. And I knew why these people were so very wrong about him.

"He did visit his mother. Constantly. He brought her things to make her happy, he talked to her doctors, nurses and other people so she wouldn't have to worry about it. He picked up her pills for her, made sure she got the best of care. And yes, he didn't house her in his home.

"Because, while she may have been an enjoyable friend, she was a very cold mother.
He and his aunt told me stories about the woman that made me realize that this man hadn't been shown love as a child. Despite that, he was showing his mother love for her by taking care of her as much as his heart could stand. She just choose to edit these facts out when talking to others and eventually chose to believe her own lies.
This story is all around us.

"The husband who appears perfectly loving and righteous who goes home and beats his wife and child.

"The lonely mother who weeps for children who limit their contact with her because she belittles their spouses.

"The woman whose decorations and house are always perfect but she cries because she's so lonely.

"The couple who have all the time and money to travel the world but only because they're trying to work through the grief of infertility.

"The girl who snaps at everyone and appears to be unpleasant but is only such because the last person she trusted hurt her beyond measure.

"If we all sat down and laid all of our cards out on the table;
financial troubles, family history, health issues, relationship issues, you name it
We'd all look at our own cards and realize that we aren't being punished.

"Everyone has their own trials in this life...
We just have to remember that the next time we look at someone else and think, "Lucky."

"Because I'm guessing they're looking at you and thinking the exact same thing.---"

It just makes me think, you never know what someone is going through.

When I moved out my Grandpa probably told everyone about what a horrible person I was and that I had destroyed "his" family. But... Why was I destroying his family? All because I moved out. Why had I moved out? Because I had a problem with cutting. Why did I cut? Because his words were destroying me, and I didn't know how to deal with the pain he was inflicting on me.

Don't judge a book by it's cover.

2 comments:

April_optimist said...

What a powerful and true post. Thank you for writing it.

Shattered said...

You couldn't be more right! My parents were the perfect people in public... Sunday school teachers, involved in the community, etc. They were anything but wonderful and it hurt so bad to watch people hold them up as wonderful examples.