For the past couple of weeks, I have been reading the book The Shack by William Paul Young and discussing different words of wisdom in the book that can be applied to survivors of child abuse. See my first post for more information about the book.
I have finished the book and really enjoyed it. No, I do not agree 100% with the author. However, I think he makes some really great points that are worth considering, which is why I spent so much time focusing upon the book in my blog.
I would like to end this series by talking about the following comment:
Mack, if anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again. ~ The Shack page 237
I think this is such an important message for all of us to hear – kindness matters. Every time you show another person kindness, you change the world!
I think about the kindnesses shown to me by my teachers. They are the ones who gave me the hope that my childhood was worth surviving. Today, I am an extremely active volunteer in my own child’s school as I “pay the kindness forward.” The kindness of my teachers not only changed my world, but they changed the world of all of the teachers and children that I help today.
There is an email that circulates periodically about a teenager who changed his plans to commit suicide because one person was nice to him. There is another about a teacher who learned the history of a troublesome student. That day, she stopped teaching reading & writing and started teaching children. That troublesome student grew up to be a doctor and asked that teacher to sit in his deceased mother’s place at his wedding.
Every act of kindness matters. Every smile, every kind word, and every nice thing you do for another person changes the world. You make a difference. You matter.
Photo credit: Amazon.com
Thank you Faith
as you know abuse survivors (including me), struggle with the idea of being special to someone. Guilt and shame are companions that I would like to kick out of my life, and just when I think I have, I round the corner and there they are again! Persistant PTSD continues to make me feel like I’m never getting better. It takes all my effort to remember how far I have come and that progress is truly taking place. Today, I needed to know that I mattered and your blog entry helped.
barbi
Kindness does matter. Being kind to yourself is just as important as being kind to others. One lesson that took me a long time to learn is that until I love myself, I can’t truly love anyone else. Loving yourself is a difficult thing for an incest survivor. Thanks for sharing this book.