I have never met a perfect person, though there was a time in my life that quite a few people came close. I used to think my sweet grandma Inez was perfect, used to think my mom was too when I was very young. I did not think there was a finer more perfect person on God's green earth than my 9th grade English Advanced Placement teacher Ms. Hayes who nurtured my intellect and told me I was surely going to be someone amazing one day.
I have put many people on pedestals over the years: pastors, bosses, friends, boyfriends, too many to count. Then strangely one day something unimaginable happens. Each and everyone of them shows you what you should have seen all along. They are only human and by that very nature they will disappoint, make mistakes, fall short, and behave as good natured humans do. Once I picked my naïveté up from the dirty floor I arose to make a decision that only I could make. Was I willing to do the one thing that I would need to in order to carry on with these persons? Was I willing to give them a second time to make a first impression......not once but whenever needed?! Carry on means without a disruption in my love, support, respect, adoration, and belief in them. If you ever wonder how someone got up so high on their pedestal, look no further than the corner where you put the foot stool.
It has never really been hard for me to provide do overs for mostly one undeniable reason. That is I need so many myself! The exception is when those second impressions are an exact replay of the first. Then what is happening is less about my overlooking their fault, but more about a fault being overlooked and unaddressed by them by choice.
We are all expected to be tolerant loving people, but we are not expected to live as the one in a constant state of being tolerated by others.
So here is to living while providing those second chances to come out first.
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