Sometimes there are people in your life and they get overlooked. At least in my life there are people I tend to overlook. I write them off as whatever someone else has defined them as, and I don't take the time to make up my own mind about them.
Like the other people must be right. There can't be any other explanation for why this person acts a certain way, talks a certain way, and is known as a certain something.
But in the past year I've learned a lot about myself and in turn other people. I'm now pretty sure that deep down somewhere people still have some good in them. You might think I'm an optimistic humanist, but I'd rather call it hope. God's grace alone has forgiven me for HUGE mess ups, some mess ups I even have a hard time forgiving myself for... and because of that grace I've rediscovered that goodness I was supposed to have. I know I've probably hurt people in my life time...and personally I know that I can credit a lot of that to the fact that I've been hurt too. I put on a front acting like I didn't need anyone or anything (even though I for some reason always accepted the fact that I needed God) ...that I was just fine and dandy the way I was. WRONG! I've only become the girl I am now because of the people I finally let in to my life.. Those people smacked me upside the head and told me to smarten up when I needed to hear it...those people stuck by me when I swore that someone would betray me. They taught me how to trust, how to persevere, how to hope and how to survive in this sin-infested world.
Relationships with other people helped me to understand that I had built up walls I didn't even know existed, and I was putting on a front even though I thought I was one of the more sincere people around. This taught me that it's part of the human condition to protect ourselves from other threats even in human form. That is why I know now that walls are penetrable and if someone seems reluctant to open up it's probably because they are afraid of being vulnerable and getting hurt again. You only learn to fear rejection and to hate vulnerability because of past experiences that have taught something isn't safe.
So. I've decided that the book is always better than the cover, and if you take time and put in effort, you'll find that there is always something valuable in every single person you come in contact with.
I think that's where the "love your enemies" comes in...I always liked the "what good will it do if you just love the people who love you" line. You have to love the people you don't know, don't understand, don't think you'll like...before you can find out who they really are, and realize they were never really your enemy in the first place....they're just the same as you. Human.