Don’t Give Up on People Too Easily

Given that nobody is perfect, would it be better to make a pre-emptive attack and completely end a person before he or she is able to hurt you even further?

Consider the case of knowing how many times and how deep your child will hurt you over the course of his or her life.  Would it be better to just end him or her while still young?  The future pain would be mitigated, which is a good thing.  Unfortunately you would also lose all the wonderful moments you could have had with your child.

Life is not all doom and gloom.  There is also good in this world, and you take both the good and the bad things together in life.  Don’t let the fear of pain – real or imagined – stop you from taking a chance on people and expecting good things to come from them.

Justice will always be important.  There is virtue in constantly fighting for it.  However don’t give up on people too easily; everyone has some good in them, and for as long as there’s life, there’s still hope.  Much like suicide, ending a problem by ending a person removes any chance of whatever good that person can still give in this world.  Justice needs to be tempered with mercy, to give a chance for repentance and good to bear fruit.

People deserve a second chance, and a third, and a fourth – as many as is necessary for them in their growth to be a better person.  And if you’re honest with yourself, then you know that you’ll need just as many chances, too.