I'm sick of judgmental memes

Enough is enough.

I've spent countless hours over the years talking with my kids about how one incident doesn't define your life.  How we need to remember that everything we do adds up and we want to try to be better today than we were yesterday.  That God doesn't judge us by one bad day but we also shouldn't wallow and abuse his grace by knowingly doing what is wrong.  We take life as a whole and one suspended moment in time does not define the wholeness of our being and spirit.

Unless, apparently, you are a world-renowned athlete competing against (literally) the best of the best of the whole world.  Then one momentary snapshot will define you as a "loser".

I don't care if these two remarkable athletes have a "history" or a friendly rivalry or not.  What I care about is that one candid shot, of which we really don't know what happened, is defining a person in a negative way.  Not the moment, not the action, the person.

Do you really want to be judged by one solitary instant that someone happens to glimpse?  I don't know about you but I have moments of each day that I'm not proud of. I have snarky comments that I sometimes can't hold back.  I am the one who gave my children their epic eye-roll capabilities.  I'm not a perfect person and, I'm taking a wild guess here, neither are you.  So, please think twice about demeaning someone for an instant in time that they may have lost focus.  Please take a moment to think that maybe you are misinterpreting what you're seeing.  Ponder the possibility that you don't know the backstory.

Because, in the end, you might be indicating that someone else's best isn't valuable.

You might be denigrating one of the top athlete's in the world for your own enjoyment.  And, in turn, you might be teaching someone impressionable that the best in the world still isn't good enough.

I really, really don't ever want my kids to think that trying their best doesn't matter if they can't be number 1.  That's a recipe for discontent and a disastrous life.  I don't want my kids to think they have to label someone who is an expert at something as a "loser" to make themselves feel better.

Bringing someone down does not make you any better.  Ever.  It makes you petty.

Instead try, "Focus helps you finish strong."  Or, "Ignore distractions and do your best".  Even better, "If today isn't your day, maybe it's tomorrow."

When you get to be in the top 99.99% of anything, then you can look at this picture and call one of them a "loser".  Until then, work on being your best and not defining a person by a single action.