During the break I got to watch the newest Harry Potter movie, and I have been thinking about one of the scenes in it. It’s the part where Harry gets to see Professor Snape’s memories of his own school days played out before him. He sees Snape being ridiculed, teased, and humiliated (and mainly by Harry’s dad). (I haven’t finished the book yet – so I don’t know how this compares with it.) It was very interesting to see. All of the sudden I saw Snape with new eyes. No wonder he didn’t like Harry’s dad. It made me feel kindof sorry for him.

Around Christmas I bought The Life of Our Lordby Charles Dickens. He wrote it for his own children and I think it is pretty special. He says,

Never be proud or unkind, my dears, to any poor man, woman, or child. If they are bad, think that they would have been better if they had had kind friends, and good homes, and had been better taught. So, always try to make them better by kind persuading words; and always try to teach them and relieve them if you can. And when people speak ill of the poor and miserable, think how Jesus Christ went among them, and taught them, and thought them worthy of His care. And always pity them yourselves, and think as well of them as you can.

This is a really good reminder for me to not judge people harshly. It is too easy sometimes to jump to conclusions.

Yesterday in the afternoon I saw that the sun had come out so I decided to go for a walk. It was kindof cold, but it felt really good to be outside. I passed a very old looking lady in a wheel chair on my way. She had a bag in each hand and was mostly pushing her way along with her feet. She was going pretty slowly. I thought about asking her if she’d like some help. Then my mind started thinking it all out. Would it be safe? Would she be offended? Maybe she doesn’t need any help, maybe it’s good for her to be exercising. I stopped after she passed and thought about going back, but then I just kept walking the other way. Afterwards I thought I had been pretty foolish and selfish. Sure, she might not have wanted help, but she could’ve told me that if I had asked. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have been very dangerous – old as she looked.

Later I realized that I had been waiting for a prompting to help this lady. But that’s not really the way it works, we shouldn’t have to be commanded in all things. So I’ve come to the conclusion that if it’s a good thing and it would help others then I should go right ahead and do it – and not wait to make sure that I should do it. Isn’t the fact that I could do it enough? And if it would actually be a bad thing then I’m sure, if I was in tune enough with the spirit, that I would know it would be bad. So I want to do better, and not fear so much to do good, but just go ahead and do it! Jesus really is our perfect example. He certainly did not let fear stop him from doing good.