Do good even when you don’t feel like it. Do good to those who have hurt you the most. Do good to those who least deserve it. Do good to those who might never give it back to you. How easy is it to do this? Not very easy but needs intention.
“One morning, when passing a stream, an old man saw a scorpion floating helplessly in the water. As the scorpion was washed closer to the tree, the old man quickly stretched himself out on one of the long roots that branched out into the river and reached out to rescue the drowning creature. As soon as he touched it, the scorpion stung him. Instinctively the man withdrew his hand. A minute later, after he had regained his balance, he stretched himself out again on the roots to save the scorpion. This time the scorpion stung him so badly with its poisonous tail that his hand became swollen and bloody and his face contorted with pain. At that moment, a passerby saw the old man stretched out on the roots struggling with the scorpion and shouted: “Hey, what’s wrong with you? Only a fool would risk his life for the sake of an ugly, evil creature. Don’t you know you could kill yourself trying to save that ungrateful scorpion?”
Without taking his eyes from the scorpion the old man replied, “My friend, just because it is the scorpion’s nature to sting, that does not change my nature to save.” The world around us will change, the people will reveal their true nature. But what is yours? Is your nature to do good even when everything around us does not reciprocate? Let us do good to that person who is helpless and needs us the most. Let us reciprocate the good in us to that person who is mean just like the scorpion. To that ex-boyfriend/girlfriend who hurt us the most, would you help them in their time of need? To that parent who was never there for us, how do you treat them when they decide to be part of our lives?
Let us do good, even when doing good seems like the most foolish thing. To get a male perspective on this, click link to read Mitchell’s post HERE
