I don't believe in idiots

Two aspects of who I am lead me to believing that no-one is worth writing off.
Firstly I'm the kind of Christian who believes that every single human is made in God's image, is wonderfully created and is a miracle to marvel at. Secondly, my counselling concepts mean I'm committed to the idea that we can believe in the goodness of all, that everyone is doing the best they can at any one moment.

Now that doesn't mean that we don't also make mistakes, hurt others, and cause all kinds of nightmares. And right now, with the possibility that Donald Trump could lead America, with all that encumbent power and potential consequences, and many hideous daily acts of violence occurring around the world, I can see it's tempting to brand some people as idiotic, dangerous, evil etc.

And yet I don't believe in idiots (or evil). I do believe that any of us can get trapped into ways of responding that mean we're not always thinking clearly, we can accidently or deliberately cause harm because of the struggles we are dealing with. And so we all need a hand.

This week I've shouted at both the smoke alarm and the microwave, both when they were simply doing their job. I figured it was better to vent my stress at inanimate objects than people, and I wasn't grateful to them for their reminders that a) I wasn't watching my cooking and b) I had long finished my cooking and needed to come back to it (I've not had a microwave before with this function. It's quite useful really as I'm now less likely to leave things in once finished). The shouting tells me I'm a bit overstretched, not that I'm bad or stupid. I'm off for a sing, that should do the trick.