People Matter

I was reminded tonight of a very important truth:

You can't treat people like they don't matter, because they do.

It's a pity that it took someone else making me feel an inch high for me to realize that I don't want to ever take out my frustrations on people I care about, but like Troy says, people are motivated by pleasure and pain, and for my sake I'm glad that I'm starting to "get it," pain or not.

Steph and I spent some time talking about this, and we both decided that is one thing we definitely don't want to carry into our adulthood. It really did (and still does) mean a great deal to me that she was willing to walk with me through this, and that at the end of it, we were able to decide how we were and were not going to treat each other and the people around us.
So much of my behavior is habitual, and I'm not so sure that all of it is noble...
I'm reminded that every day we are becoming the people we are going to be for the rest of our lives, that I am deciding right now the kind of 30-year old, 40-year old, 50 year-old man I'm going to be. The fact that Stephanie is the kind of person who is willing to deeply wrestle with this alongside of me says a whole lot about her, and reminds me that I am truly blessed among men to be courting such an amazing woman. "Lily among thorns" is the appropriate term here, methinks.