Projecting, reflecting...

"Jesus, help me see you in everyone, even the people who challenge me. Light me up with your radiant love so that I may see you even in the most difficult of people. Every human being is made in your image. Help me to recognize you and love you in them."

"People aren't toxic. We are humans troubled, afraid, hurting, struggling, and although some of us use more harmful ways to cope than others we're not toxic." ~Iva

Romans 5:10 "For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"

Labeling people as toxic (or labeling them as narcissists who must be avoided) is an awful lot like an excuse to not love them like Christ loved us. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8 If we all look in the mirror honestly, we will see that we each exhibit the traits that it is so trendy to accuse others of. Ephesians 4:2 exhorts us to be completely humble and gentle, patient bearing with one another in love. The moment we use excuses to write people off, label them, and call ourselves "victim" is the moment we choose to be disobedient and non-followers of Jesus.

Think about this. Label the person as "narcissist" or "toxic" and you are judging them just as these memes or lists usually accuse these people of judgmental. Manipulative? You are guilty of trying to manipulate other people's views of them when you insist on diagnosing them as such and spreading it out there. Bullying? You are guilty of bullying them by labeling and manipulating opinions of them. Selfish? Likely you are selfishly deciding that they did not put your needs or feelings first and hey wait, isn't that also selfish? You claim they "need to be right" yet - is it your own need to be right that is so angry about the belief that their opinion is right? If you both agreed on something, wouldn't this be a moot point? They are surrounded by drama? Generally, it seems the drama is generated by the person who shares this beware of narcissists, etc, all over social media. That's pretty dramatic. The list can go on.

Look in the mirror. Then turn away from the mirror and look at Jesus - that's who you want to look like in the end, right? Follow His example.

We are all hopelessly messy, multidimensional and needing a Savior.