Challenges opened her eyes to other sides of the story

I am a 75-year-old woman, married 54 years with two adult children and four grandchildren.

Blessed? Yes!

I was raised since childhood in a Christian family and continued this practice in raising our children. We felt the presence of God at our side in many challenges.

We never considered these life challenges as crises. Our faith continued to grow. I felt that life was mostly centered on my husband, Tom, and me.

Several years ago I was blessed to be the conference coordinator for the Methodist Home for Children and Youth, and was exposed to the other side of the story – children without family support, alone, frightened and bitter!

A blessing in our life resulted when we decided to become a visiting resource for a 15-year-old young man. I say “blessing” because he showed us the other side of the story.

Eric was gay, a drug addict, alcoholic and a bitter young man. He represented many others who are not the Toms and Bonnies of this world.

Yes, I hear you – the many Christians and society members saying Eric should have “just said no”! But we saw the pain in Eric. He showed us it is not so simple.

He became a blessing and a son to us as we watched his pain and struggles. And I realized it isn’t that simple to just say no!

I don’t mean that we gave up our belief in God but we acknowledged not having all the answers and heard the other messages God was giving us.

We lost Eric two years ago. He took his own life. But he impacted our lives as he enabled us to witness the other side of the story.

Within the past several years I have developed a negative attitude regarding people who are rejecting people who do not conform to behavior they consider respectable according to their own moral and ethical standards. They are not willing to open themselves to the possibilities of a variety of different lifestyles, contributing to the feeling of rejection, fear, low self-esteem, anger and helplessness.

I have been exposed to the pain. As I have noted, just saying no is not that simple! So, my faith has continued to grow, but my religion has not.

Now, the other side of the story. Approximately two years ago I had a second stroke. Fortunately I am functioning very well but require a cane for balance.

Suddenly I became exposed to the other side of our society by the grace of God. I realized that almost every day, without exception, people extended their assistance to me, opening doors, offering their seats, putting me ahead of them in service assistance. These are but a few examples.

It showed me the other side of society that I had excluded in my negative judgment. I still have a long way to go in lessening my critical judgment of my fellow human beings, but thank God that the cane has been the beginning.

May you open your hearts and minds to consider the positive side of our world, and may you find your cane in life.

This story was originally published December 27, 2016 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Challenges opened her eyes to other sides of the story."