Don’t we all wish that everyone would be a better person? Do we not hope that some bad people would turn their lives around and start doing good? Do we wish our neighbors would treat us better than before? Do we hope that the people we meet each day would show us respect and treat us fairly? If we expect others to be nicer and fairer, should we not make the effort as well? The golden rule is that we should treat others the way we would want them to treat us.<\/p>\n
Be a better person now. Do not wait until next year and make a resolution about it. Do not put it off until next week or even tomorrow. Start right now. Look at the person closest to you and show them love. Pick up the phone and call someone who would appreciate thoughtful consideration. Help someone who needs it, and even if they do not need help, help them anyways. Perhaps they will turn the favor and help someone else. If we would just try, we could turn our society around and make it a pleasant adventure each day to interact with others. Smile. Wish someone a nice day. Be courteous. Encourage others to be good. Tell people about God and His promises. Read I John 3:17 and meditate upon it.<\/p>\n
I John 3:18 reads: “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.<\/em>” Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk. Show your love to others.<\/p>\n I John 4:20 reads: “If someone says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.<\/em>“<\/p>\n One way to turn your life around is to change your focus. When you focus on God you become a better person. When you focus on helping others, you become a better person. Our goal is to get people focused on God and become people that are better. Our community would be much better if more people were better.<\/p>\n Come and visit us. Come worship God with us. Let us help you get to heaven and you come to encourage us to get to heaven as well. We know that God is not willing that any perish (II Peter 3:9). You must believe that Jesus is the Son of God and died on the cross for your sins. (Acts 8:37). You must repent of your sins (Luke 13:3), you must confess Jesus as Lord (Matthew 10:32) and you must be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16). Then you must remain faithful and continue learning how to serve God (II Peter 3:18). Let us help you on your spiritual journey. May God bless you in your study of His word.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Carey Scott Don’t we all wish that everyone would be a better person? Do we not hope that some bad people would turn their lives around and start doing good? Do we wish our neighbors would treat us better than before? Do we hope that the people we meet each day would show us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[642,374,1287],"class_list":["post-55149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-christianity","tag-happiness","tag-joy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27529,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-a-hypocrite\/","url_meta":{"origin":55149,"position":0},"title":"What is a hypocrite?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is it to be a hypocrite? I remember a time when one friend wanted me to give him more attention, but there was a friend of his who was always talking to him, and he just ignored him.\u00a0So I said, \"You want to get attention from me but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84918,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-those-with-mental-illness-be-treated-as-shut-ins\/","url_meta":{"origin":55149,"position":1},"title":"Should those with mental illness be treated as shut-ins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Sir, Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! Sometimes, people with clinically diagnosed mental illnesses, like MDD, anxiety disorders, bipolar, etc., have episodes. They don't want to go to church because they feel judged and misunderstood. Sadly, some of them don't feel safe while in the church because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86789,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-unto-others\/","url_meta":{"origin":55149,"position":2},"title":"Do Unto Others","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them\" (Luke 6:31). This does not mean: Do unto others as they have done to you. This is not revenge permission. It is acting contrary to revenge, as you would never wish for someone to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28221,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-go-about-having-a-relationship-as-a-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":55149,"position":3},"title":"How do I go about having a relationship as a Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I want to start by saying how I appreciate your help to others as seen through your web site. My question is: I recently got saved and have been in secular relationships before. There is this lady in our fellowship group whom I am deeply in love with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89872,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/internal-issues\/","url_meta":{"origin":55149,"position":4},"title":"Internal Issues","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer We cannot see what is going on inside someone. That's obvious, but sometimes our judgments about people assume that everything should be normal for them because we can't see anything outwardly wrong. If we see them acting in ways we would otherwise expect, we might judge them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47034,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/an-eye-exam\/","url_meta":{"origin":55149,"position":5},"title":"An Eye Exam","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Luke 11:34-36 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There is an old saying that bad things come in threes and to a lot of people this appears to be a true statement \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Life is filled with good and bad events \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But what happens is that when something bad happens, we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}