How We Avoid Hate!

To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue. All a person's ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord. Proverbs 16:1,2
When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone's way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them. Better a little with righteousness than much with injustice.  7,8
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud. Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord. The wise are called discerning, and gracious words promote instruction. 18-21
A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. A violent person entices their neighbor and leads them down a path that is not good. 28, 29
Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. 32

One of the most significant ways we can avoid situations that lead to hate is to understand how hate manifests itself. Hate doesn't just show up out of the blue--it is planted, fertilized and nurtured to fruition by those who are insecure, fearful, and resentful (and incapable of rational thought).

People who have severe doubts about their own ability to accomplish things resent those who are confident and their lives demonstrate their confidence. Generally speaking, they will fertilize their insecurities by blaming others for what they have not achieved, and the more they blame others, the more they nurture their hatred. They teach their children to hate others because of fear--not knowledge--and those fears for the most part are baseless because insecure people--don't venture far from their base of comfort. In other words, they have not lived a full life--one in which they ventured far from home and experienced life outside their parameters of their comfort zone.

The same people are incapable of understanding that we can be passionate in our disagreement with others, but we don't have to allow the disagreement to lead to hate. We must understand that it is our right to disagree, but we can disagree, agreeably which won't lead to wars or rumors of wars or bullying rhetoric. Hate spreads when people who are incapable of rational thought never realize that they are not always right and that others don't have to agree with them. They have yet to understand what "individuality" means.

If God had wanted clones--He could have created them. We would all look alike, think alike and never have any need to use our brains or vocal cords.

What we must do to avoid the proliferation of hatred, bigotry, and senseless fear is to realize we all have something to contribute to society in productive, constructive ways and none should be ignored or disregarded simply because of race, ethnicity, religion, gender or any other factor. We must realize that God created one race of people--the human race with one blood surging through all--it's red--no matter the color of skin is.

With insecurities--comes the tendency to think a person or a group of people is superior to another. In order to perpetuate the lies--they create all sorts of false data, write books with suspicious documentation to prove they are superior to others. We see this in the beliefs of all the "white nationalists" or other hate groups who actually believe they are superior to every other group of people. They do not know or understand that the cradle of civilization began on the continent of Africa and that skin tones changed as man migrated to cooler climates. Education would be extremely beneficial to debunk all these myths, but for those who hate--irrationally--they tend to think that having an education is synonymous with being elitist. Therefore, they revel in their ignorance and nurture their hate.

There's an adage that says, "ignorance is bliss" and we can see that being true for those who choose to blame others for their shortcomings and positions in life. They're happy with their ignorance and would rather hate than learn to live peaceably in society.

We know that when we disagree (especially in households), we should never allow the sun to go down and we're still angry. Be passionate in disagreement, but ready to concede the possibility of being wrong and be willing to do the research to make a verifiable point and not just rely upon "an opinion" with no legs.

We can avoid planting the seeds of hatred and bigotry by recognizing that we are part of a greater world and we don't have a right to expect others to live  by what we think or believe. We can educate ourselves (with all of the accessible technology) and not hold others accountable for what we don't accomplish. We can learn to love--unconditionally--just as God loves us and with that love--there's no room for hate. We can stop fertilizing and nurturing hatred by accepting responsibility for what we do and say or for what we don't do. We are responsible for everything we say--good or bad--and everything we do--good or bad and we cannot blame others for our actions or inactions.

When we learn to critically analyze why we think what we think, believe what we believe, or do what we do--we'll discover there is more to life and living than what we think we know.