Written by Peace Hyde
Hello
and welcome to a piece of peace. Your weekly dose of motivation and
inspiration. This week I would like to share on the topic of “the power
of perception.” Yesterday I put up an inspirational post on my
instagram. The post was a positive self-love message encouraging
everyone to love him or herself no matter what they were going through. I
had some mixed reactions from my amazing faith builders that got me
thinking about the way we perceive and interact with one another as
human beings.
First of all, let me explain a
little bit more about the post. It was a video of a man who most people
will find a little bit strange based on his choice of long green hair
with matching long curved green nails, long eye lashes and quite an
ambitious looking eye brow coloured with an equally ambitious set of
colours. I am the first to admit that one would typically look at such a
person and relegate them to being a clown or someone who is simply not
serious about their lives. Secondly, the flamboyant speaking style of
this person also alludes to the fact that his sexual orientation might
not necessarily be acceptable to a lot of people based on religious or
homophobic grounds. That being said, I decided to share the video
because although all the initial thoughts occurred to me, I saw
something more in him. I looked past the entire make up and the exterior
look and listened to the message the man was sharing. And the message
was simply a positive affirmation of self-love and acceptance of who you
are.
I decided to post the video for my faith
builders who right or wrong always let me know what they think. I got
some very interesting feedback. Most people had the general opinion
that, it was wrong for me to support someone who portrayed themselves
like that. I had some people quote-biblical verses to buttress their
points also and explain in no small way, about how the man was destined
for hell. One faith builder said and I quote “yes I get the message but
do you have to support someone who looks like this? And also being gay
is wrong and should not be encouraged.” In all, I received over 30
comments with mixed emotions about the post but with the underlying
theme of, No peac_hy, we do not support this one. I found this very
interesting and discussed with a close friend what was being said. I
explained that the whole idea of the post was for people to not judge a
book by its cover and give someone a chance no matter how unacceptable
that individual may appear to us.
My friend came
back with some valid points. Firstly, he said no matter how positive the
man’s message, people only listen to people who they can relate to. For
example, if you saw a man running for presidency with tattoos all over
the body, you would be less inclined to vote for him no matter how
qualified he was for the position. Secondly, you will not see an image
of soldiers going to war in tailored suits and have the confidence that
they will win the war. Thirdly, imagine going into church and the
preacher approached the podium in his boxer shorts. Would you respect
anything he had to say? He concluded by saying perception is everything
and to be taken seriously, one needs to look the part of a serious
person.
Whiles I completely agree with everything
he said, there was a part of me that still felt unsettled. It is not my
job to convince anyone of what is acceptable to them or not. I simply
feel that, sometimes, the message you need or the help you have been
waiting for, might just come from the most unlikely of sources. There
have been several times where I needed a strong word of encouragement to
help me keep moving forward and the last person in the world I could
ever imagine giving me deep sound advice usually had the right words
that helped me get through my moment of darkness.
God
sometimes uses the unworthiest of people in the bible to transform the
lives of multitudes. Even Jesus who was the son of a carpenter and born
not in a plush medieval hospital, but a manger with animals, would have
been the last candidate ever selected to be the saviour of the world,
but as history would have it today, praise the lord. The moral of my
story is this. In a world where image is everything, it is sometimes
difficult to look past what we perceive. However, we must be open and
willing sometimes to put our preconceived notions behind and listen to
that inner voice because you never know who could be holding the keys to
your salvation. Remember my lovely faith builders, always be yourself
because everyone else is taken.
Much love,
Peace Hyde.
You can follow Peace on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/peac_hy
Instagram: http://instagram.com/peac_hy/
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