we are what we hate

Why is it so difficult to be a good person?

Let's genuinely think about this and be honest with ourselves.  Aren't we the very person that we hate?  We talk about how much we hate it when people lie to us.. and then we're backed into a corner and what do we do?  We lie.  Hey, big problems when you do it, but when I do it?  It's cause I had to.  We always have some sort of excuse to lie. 
We talk about how much we hate it when people talk crap about us.  But let's be honest, who doesn't?  We hate gossip when it's about us, but we can't help but say something here or something there about someone or something.  Aren't we entitled to our opinion?  We would never call our "normal" conversation "gossip".  No way. 
We talk about how much we hate being mistreated because of our race... and we turn around and do exactly that.  We use our race to our advantage, and we turn it around on anyone else. 
We talk about how messed up someone is for doing this or doing that to someone else.  "I can't believe he/she would do/say that to him/her!"  But the truth is, we've all done/said something that we regret.  We've all been there.  We've all done that. 

Let's face it... we are what we hate. 

So maybe we give the guy/girl a break.  So maybe we're not so hard on them when they mess up.  So maybe we don't get so offended when we hear something about us.  Maybe we realize that deep down, we're really not all that much better.  Maybe instead of anger... we extend mercy.  Maybe instead of hate, we extend forgiveness.  Maybe being a Christian doesn't mean we pretend to stop doing all these things, but extending a hand to people that are just like us. 

Maybe forgiving a liar will make me less of a liar.  Maybe forgiving a gossiper will make me gossip less.  Maybe extending grace to someone who hurt me will make me less prone to hurt others...