Be Kind. Everyone You Meet Is Fighting a Hard Battle. 🤍

🤍 Be Kind. Everyone You Meet Is Fighting a Hard Battle.

I have always loved the quote: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." The older I get, the more deeply I understand it.

My life has held chapters of real pain. As a child, two men tried to abduct me — a moment that could have altered the entire course of my life if they'd succeeded. I lived through my parents' difficult divorce. I carried the heartbreak of a miscarriage. I lost my precious goddaughter to drowning. My neck was fractured and I was told by doctors I might never move it normally again — and might never be able to carry a child of my own (but I carried twins to a full term pregnancy- God is so good!!!!). I have known infidelity and heartbreak. And a couple of years ago, my only sister was diagnosed with cancer.

There have been moments when life brought me to my knees. But those are also the places where I have experienced the faithfulness of Jesus most profoundly — through the fear, the grief, the uncertainty, the prayers I could barely get out, the seasons when I couldn't understand what He was doing.

And because of Him, I am still standing. More than standing — I am grateful. I am joyful. I am raising my children. I am building a life I love, surrounded by people I love. I have learned that some of the hardest chapters of our stories can become the places from which we love other people the most. My community has carried me when I needed it most, and I love them for it — my friends, my community, the city of Austin.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." — Philippians 4:13

Everyone Has a Story You Cannot See

I am a 10/10 people person. I love relationships. I love sitting across from someone over a cup of coffee and actually hearing their story.

This week, a couple of conversations reminded me why kindness matters so much. One friend shared that he had lost his sister to cancer — my heart hurt for him immediately. My own sister battled cancer a few years ago, and while our stories are different, I understand something of that particular fear. Another new friend told me her grandchildren are partially deaf.

Both conversations reminded me of the same truth: you simply never know what someone is carrying.

The woman smiling at you in the grocery store may be going through a divorce. The dad sitting beside you at a baseball game may be worried about how he's going to provide for his family. The friend who hasn't texted back may be overwhelmed. The mom who looks perfectly put together may have cried in her car ten minutes earlier.

People Don't Always Need Us to Fix It

Sometimes people don't need advice, a lecture, or someone to compare their pain to their own. Sometimes they just need a friend — a listening ear, a hug, a cup of coffee, someone willing to sit beside them without rushing them through their grief.

Someone to say, "I hear you." Someone to remind them that what they're feeling matters. Someone who will pray with them — or quietly pray for them when they don't have the words to pray for themselves.

There is something powerful about simply making another human being feel seen. I think we underestimate that ministry. We assume loving people has to be complicated or grand, but Jesus continually showed us the importance of seeing the person in front of us. He noticed people others overlooked. He had compassion. He listened. He stopped. He loved.

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." — Romans 12:15

That verse doesn't say fix those who mourn. It says mourn with them. Sit with them. Love them there.

There's a quote often (though not certainly) attributed to Maya Angelou: "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

I want people to leave my presence feeling loved. Not judged. Not compared. Not rushed. Loved. Because I know what it feels like to walk through hard things — and I know what it feels like when someone shows up in the middle of them.

Does being kind mean we're never allowed to have boundaries—even with people who have hurt us or someone who has double-crossed/deceived us? The answer, I've come to believe with a lot of wise counsel is no! Sometimes firm boundaries are absolutely needed!!

Kindness was never meant to mean allowing ourselves, or the people we love, to be harmed again and again. Boundaries aren't a lack of grace—they can be an expression of it. Sometimes love looks like open arms and other times we have to protect ourself and those we love. I've had to learn this the hard way. With some people who have hurt me or my children, I've had to hold very strong boundaries. Not out of bitterness, but out of a deeper responsibility to protect what God has entrusted to me.

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A Reminder — To Myself as Much as Anyone

Choose kindness. Give people a little more grace. Ask the extra question. Put your phone down and really listen. Invite the friend to coffee. Check on the person who has been quiet. Pray for the person whose burden you can't carry yourself.

While I am far from perfect and am a sinner in need of Jesus, I do strive to do the right thing. Through hard seasons in my own life, I've always had people in my corner — not because they had to be, but because they loved me, and I had walked with them through their own hard seasons too.

Some people we help can never repay us. But God sees. God knows every good deed, even the ones no one else notices.

Matthew 25:40

Don't assume someone's beautiful life means they haven't known tremendous pain. And when someone trusts you enough to tell you their story, treat it gently — because everyone you meet is carrying something. Some battles are visible. Many are not.

Perhaps one of the most Christlike things we can do is simply look at another person and say, through our words and actions: I see you. I hear you. Your story matters. You don't have to carry this alone.

Our pain doesn't have to make us bitter. With Christ, it can make us softer — more compassionate, more patient, more willing to notice the hurting person sitting right in front of us.

My prayer is that everything I've walked through makes me more loving, not less. More compassionate, not hardened. More aware of the battles other people may be quietly fighting. Because Jesus has carried me through some of the hardest moments of my life — and if I can use what I've walked through to sit beside someone else in theirs, then even the painful chapters have purpose.

"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." — Galatians 6:2

So today: be kind. Listen a little longer. Judge a little less. Love a little deeper. Give someone grace when you don't know the whole story.

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you may know absolutely nothing about.

🤍 Be the person who makes that battle feel a little less lonely.

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