Squeezing Beans into Pea Pods

Have you ever felt life was akilter? Do you have trouble fitting in? Perhaps you wonder why things are not working around you? Maybe you feel everyone else knows the rules and you don't quite get it? Have you considered that you may be different to everyone else? Not wrong, just different!

Take peas in a pod. They fit easily, lined up together, in synch. Think of society as the peas in a pod. What if you were not born a pea and were in fact a string bean? You would have difficulty lining up with the peas! Yet, you were always meant to be a string bean. Maybe you need to find the other string beans, which may be very rare in your patch of the world!

A real world example may be your child who is having a problem with social dynamics at school. For example, you have a shy and sensitive child, and your child has difficulty making friends, as all the other children say no when asked to play. Have you considered that there may be nothing wrong with your child, as perhaps he or she will fit in with a more caring environment, where the other children are friendly? Maybe the other children sense that your child is different? Yet, maybe the other children could learn much about compassion and sensitivity from your child.

Just because your child is shy and quiet, whereas the other children may be brash and confident, and there are not many children like your child around the school, does not mean your child has a problem, it may merely mean your child is wired differently, and should be treated differently. Perhaps your child is even gifted with abilities others do not recognise, as they are so different from the norm. Perhaps your child would thrive with more personal attention from a caring teacher and from kind classmates who understand his or her peculiarities of personality.

Not wrong, just different... You are who you are. Be yourself. Accept yourself, as you should accept others. I believe unconditional acceptance is love.

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:31 KJV)