I have been hating Facebook this week. Elections seem to turn regular people into hateful, ridiculous members of society. I realize that this is America and we are fully entitled to whatever political views we like, but the vitriol scattered over the internet makes me want to quit all inter-personal communication. There have been insults, rudeness and all-around idiocy and I’m so dad-gum tired of it.

I’m getting rather tired of people.

But that’s not good. I’m supposed to love people. Even the ones who have preposterous political views and insist on shoving them in my face. I’ve got to get on board with loving my neighbor again.

To remind me and all of you that there are some really lovely people out there I’m going to tell you a nice story about some wonderful women I was lucky to call my visiting teachers. One particular day about a dozen years ago I had four very young children. I was up to my eyeballs in diapers and board books. My visiting teachers, Wendy and Linda, scheduled an appointment to come visiting teach me one morning. Naturally I forgot all about it.

The morning of the appointment my husband decided to “clean out the fridge”. Meaning he took the 10 or 15 tupperware containers of moldy food out of the fridge and stacked them up nicely on the counter for me to clean out (Thanks, hon!) and then left for work. I fed the kids, piled the dishes on the counter (the sink already being full of dirty dishes) and hopped in the shower.

Halfway through bathing, my four-year-old son came in and announced that there were ladies from church at our front door. I jumped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around my dripping wet self and dashed downstairs. There were my sweet visiting teachers. I apologized and told them to have a seat in the living room while I ran back to my room to rinse out my hair and throw some clothes on.

By the time I dried off and got dressed my visiting teachers had loaded my dishwasher and filled the sink with hot soapy water. They had already emptied out my disgusting plastic containers.

They scrubbed my moldy Tupperware.

As far as I’m concerned that’s the 21^st century equivalent of washing somebody’s feet.

When I think about being a good human being and especially about being a good visiting teacher, I remember these visiting teachers. They didn’t say, “let us know if we can help.” They didn’t perch awkwardly on the sofa waiting for me to show up. They just saw a need and filled it. And it was a yucky need. But they did it anyway.

It wasn’t some big deal like I had cancer and they rallied around me. It was just a dumb little thing that took twenty minutes. But it sank into my soul. It showed me the power of kindness and making the world just a smidge better by doing something tiny but amazing.

What awesome little things have happened to you to make you love humanity? Let’s end this week on a happy note by talking about all the wonderful ways we’ve interacted with people! Tell me your stories!