Has anyone ever warned you not to make fun of how someone looks because your kids will end up looking the same way? Though I doubt there is scientific evidence to support that, I will warn you that if you make fun of someone, you can expect to reap it back somehow.
If you make fun of that awkward guy in college, your son may end up being that awkward guy someday. If you make fun of that girl with the weight problem, you may find yourself twenty years down the road trying to reassure your overweight daughter that she is beautiful.
On a lighter (and personal) note, if you make fun of a college professor behind her back for wearing a coat year round, your husband might end up doing the same thing! ~smile~
When I was in community college many years ago, my best friend and I had a Spanish professor that wore a jacket with lighthouses on it. She wore it winter, spring, summer, and fall. She was a nice lady, and I liked her a lot; but, I could not get over that jacket. Isn’t she hot? Is she hiding something? We had loads of questions about her reasons for staying warm in our humid, Eastern North Carolina climate.
One day in mid-July, my friend and I were standing in the parking lot talking and we saw her in the distance without her jacket. We were both surprised, but happy to know that she was willing to shed her extra layer when the temperature reached triple digits. Should my best friend and I end up roommates in a nursing home someday, I assure you that we will still be talking about that lighthouse jacket.
So, let’s fast forward a few years to Liberty University. While sitting in a psychology class, I met a man with the same affliction as my poor Spanish teacher. He wore a jacket year round too. Thankfully it did not feature lighthouses, but I still had some similar questions. Isn’t he hot? What would possess him to wear a jacket in this heat? Maybe I snickered about his extra layer issues too – I don’t remember. All I know is that we fell in love and I married him.
For the last several years, I’ve heard such statements as “Hey, your husband’s the guy that wears that jacket all the time! Doesn’t he get hot? Did he wear that jacket during your wedding? Does he wear that jacket to bed?” His jacket has become his trademark. It cracks me up to think back to all those jokes we made about our poor Spanish teacher. Little did I know the joke was going to be on me!
This is a lighthearted story to drive home a serious message. Eric’s chronic jacket wearing is really not a big deal and we are not hurt or upset when people pick on us about it. Obviously, he can take the jacket off at any time. What is a big deal, however, is when we make fun of others for disabilities or health problems – whether they are in control of them or not.
What this silly jacket lesson taught me is that there is truth to the phrases you reap what you sow and what goes around comes around. If you have a habit of making light hearted jokes about others, you should seriously consider the ramifications of those jokes. Ask yourself how you would feel if your beloved husband or wife to be ended up suffering with similar ailments. Would it break your heart to hear others making jokes about him or her? What about your children? How would it feel to have them come home every day crying because people were making the same jokes about them you used to make about others?
If you make fun of people, you can expect to experience it in return. It may not be towards you, but towards the ones you love, which in many cases is a deeper kind of hurt.
Let us all remember when we are tempted to make jokes about others that we may have to eat our words someday! I can’t help but giggle at the thought of marrying a man who loves wearing a jacket year round after all the jokes I made about the poor lighthouse jacket lady. As silly as it is, it makes me stop and think before making fun of others. As you prepare for marriage, examine yourself to see if you have a tendency to judge or make fun of other people and take any necessary action to stop. After all, there could be a lighthouse jacket in your future! ~smile~
Do you or your significant other find yourself making jokes at the expense of others?
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