Cardboard Cut-Outs

I'm surrounded by people all day. And you probably are too. (Unless you're in solitary confinement, then I'm not quite sure how you got a hold of my blog...) That's just a part of living in the world.

And it's really great! People's lives are so interesting. I don't know why it's so easy for me to think of the people I meet in Carl's Junior as props -- just there to make the scenery more pleasant (Or sometimes less pleasant. Let's be honest). But they're real people and they live real lives, with just as much depth and excitement as I belive my life to have.

I think certain people are put in my life to teach me lessons. (And really good jokes. I learn my best jokes from other people.)

I'm starting to realize that everything that I am and that I've done in life, I owe to all the great examples that are around me. The people around me truly shape my life; I would never be where I am now if not for my family and teachers and friends and leaders. And not the least of which, Jesus Christ.

Christ is the perfect leader. No one else that has come to this earth has been perfect. And no one else will be. Spencer W. Kimball said of him, "Jesus believed in his followers, not alone for what they were, but for what they had the possibilities to become."

Christ taught so many important lessons while he was on the earth, not only with His words, but with His actions. I think this is one of the most important -- to see people as they can become, and to look for the best in them. There's a reason the particular people that are in my life are there.

But it's hard to find the best in them when I think of them as cardboard cut-outs...

It's weird to think that the people I get close to affect my life so much, and there are so many perfect strangers in the world that I see daily that I never even talk to. It's natural then to assume that those people have the potential to be just as important to me, if I give them the chance to be.

And so my challenge, for myself and for you if you're up for it, is to start trying to see people for their potential. Get to know them, and see the best in them; look for their strengths, not their weaknesses. I'm sure that as I do this (and as you do this) that I will be blessed with an increase of love for those around me. And I'm also sure that my pool of people I look up to will greatly increase.

"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matthew 22:39)