We all need a little mercy at times.  Or maybe even a lot.

One of life’s principles is that what you put out into the world, comes back to you.  Simply stated, if you treat people poorly, you’ll probably be treated poorly yourself.   The reverse is true as well.  If you are good to others, people will most likely be good to you.

I’ve been studying through the Sermon on the Mount, and have been struck in particular with Jesus’s words, “Give mercy, receive mercy”.

Mercy suggests being  forgiving towards someone to whom it is in your power to hurt or harm. Mercy also motivates compassion and kindness towards others.

One of my strong dislikes is to hear derogatory, critical, or insulting statements directed towards others.  It’s easy to be verbally critical of people who fall outside of accepted social boundaries, who “fail” in some way, or who live a life very different from ourselves.

I always tell the kids, and try to model this myself, to never be critical of others because we don’t really know what it’s like to be them. We can’t fully understand why “they”, “those people”,  make the choices they do. (Unless we reach out to become friends and then that’s a game changer). For example, criticizing someone who is obese for not being self- controlled when maybe the story behind the story is that food has become a way of numbing the pain of abuse as a child.

Any of us are capable of finding ourselves in a situation someday, if not already, where we are the ones that need mercy.

And if we haven’t given mercy to others throughout our life, I don’t know that we can expect a lot of mercy from others when we need it ourselves.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is rephrased in the Message version to read:

“Here is a simple, rule of thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.” (Mt. 7).

Want mercy?  Give mercy.