Stemming from a similar theme as my latest post, I am reminded of how little we can glean from outward appearances. Many (dare I say most) of our impressions are shaped (and distorted) by our own opinions, expectations, and personal experiences. Just as people draw incorrect conclusions about me from the way I look and my profession, it is so easy miss out on what’s going on inside those around us—their motives, thoughts, and core beliefs.
Two people are jogging on the street. Both are a similar size and appear healthy and fit. There’s plenty of assumptions we may make about why they are that size or out exercising. It’s probable that these joggers are lumped together in our minds, just like we merge all “skinny” or “fat” people together en masse as if they’re all the same.
They could be equally admired, applauded, or even envied. But when the focus is on the facade, we lose the powerful, pivotal, and potentially precarious soul within.
Exercise is just one example. We could take two people eating a similar meal, say a large salad, and see a stark disparity in the why behind that food choice. Deprivation for one. Attention to hunger for another. Food rules or food preference.
What’s inside is what makes us healthy or unhealthy. What’s at the core is what determines our well-being, our wholeness. And this is something we’ll never know from an outward glance.
It’s what makes all the difference in the world.
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What do you assume about the health of others from appearance alone? Is your soul healthy?
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