When I check my suitcase at the airport - and then I see it disappear as the conveyor belt carries it beyond the curtain into the black hole called - the luggage-zone, I sometimes wonder how my bag is going to be handled. I don't know exactly what baggage handlers do, but I do know my luggage may get tossed, buried, squished and treated poorly. That's why I ask for a special sticker when I'm checking a bag that has something breakable in it. On one occasion I was carrying a lap top computer that stored valuable information in it. There were a lot of items in my bag that could have been shattered if the handlers got too rowdy. So I simply asked for the protection of that bright red sticker with the picture of a fine drinking glass on it - the symbol of breakable. And I hope that somewhere in the luggage-zone that one 7-letter word will make a difference in how my things are handled - the word - FRAGILE.
Mosiah 3:15 says "Thus did Alma teach his people, that every man should love his neighbor as himself, that there should be no contention among them."
This gives us a blueprint for how to handle - not baggage - but love the people around us. Simply put, if we love ourselves, then we should also love others. This is the formula for contending with contention, and handling others who might be labeled as FRAGILE.
This formula is universally known as "The Golden Rule." It is, to treat others as you yourself wish to be treated. Stephen Covey said in his book "Spiritual Roots of Human Relations" that "The Golden Rule is perhaps the finest expression of the human relation concept…the key to success with others." (also refer to 1 Corinthians 13) Bro. Covey further writes that it is "love within you and me that determines whether we can be successful in understanding, in achieving our goals, and in maintaining happy and productive relationships with other people." This process of learning to love others and practicing love may be time-consuming, difficult and sometimes time consuming, but is worthwhile, very satisfying, immensely rewarding and makes the world a better place.
Ephesians 4:29 Paul gives good advice for handling the fragile, he says, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."
This is good advice for those who are in the care of those FRAGILE people who need love. It is true that the words we say can have a great impact on others.
The way we talk to people either builds them up or tears them down. Why is this important? Because people are fragile. We are all fragile people and we all need to be loved at times when we are most fragile, when we need love the most.
It certainly does not please our Heavenly Father when we damage his children with our words. Children He is trying to build. Fragile baggage that need his love.
Then Paul lists some of the kind of handling that damages human cargo. He says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice." Paul is asking us to see what the Lord sees when He looks at the people around us - a sticker that says FRAGILE. A fragile sticker should change the way we handle people and love them.
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ forgave you." This is the standard by which we have to measure our treatment of our mate, our children, our parents, our friends, our co-workers, our critics, even our problem people.
Think about your own relationships - is there too much talk that isn't helpful for building those people up . . . that tears them down . . . that isn't kind and compassionate and forgiving? What about the sarcasm . . . the put-downs . . . the harsh criticisms. . . the tendency to dwell on the negative . . . the names . . . the cutting humor . . . the angry responses.
A lot of times we handle people roughly in reaction to how they handled us. But the Lord calls us to do pro-active talk, not reactive, not treating people as we were treated by as we WANT them to treat us, and treating them, not as they have treated you, but as the Savior has treated you.
The measure of how big a person we are is how big or small people feel after they have been around us. We need to make a concentrated effort towards making people feel more valuable rather than less valuable by the way we treat them.
It's time to put that fragile sticker on the people around you, even the hard ones, who are that way probably because of how they have been treated by others, they way they have been loved, thrown around and broken on the conveyor belt of life.
Each person is made in the image of God, and each person is easily broken, whether they show it or not. I don't want my breakable possession thrown around and broken. God doesn't want His precious, breakable creations thrown around and broken. Remember, they're FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE.