I recently heard of a crude saying used by some people in the business world: “cash covers all sins.” I take this to mean that if someone has money to do business and you are greatly profiting off what they bring, then a lot of their negative qualities and actions can be easily overlooked.
This is a diminished version of the Bible verse in 1 Peter 4:8: love covers a multitude of sins. In my opinion, it can also be a poor principle to follow in some circumstances if the sins that are overlooked are unethical.
On the other hand, this is a great principle to follow in ALL circumstances, but it’s not what you might think. Let’s replace sins with faults or defects and the word cash with the words being human. This would make the phrase, being human covers all faults or defects. This should be our overarching attitude in our dealings with everyone we meet.
No one is perfect. We should not expect this of others or ourselves. Yes, there are lines that people should not cross, there are actions that absolutely can and should not be taken, but there are a multitude of qualities, characteristics, and imperfections that need not be a cause for casting someone aside.
Whatever our lacking qualities may be, we all would rather others not focus on those qualities and pay attention to our strengths. Let’s normalize seeing the strengths and good qualities in each other and paying less attention to weaknesses and short comings. We can simply agree that we are all imperfect, fall short, and have certain issues that are undesirable, and then move on.
We can simply keep in mind being human covers all faults meaning, as humans, we all possess a deep value and worth that is far too great to be devalued by our imperfections. The value is so tremendous that any weakness should be easily overlooked.
This brings to mind any love affair in which the couple see no fault in the object of their affection. Each only perceives what their heart longs for – to cherish the other. Taking away the higher degree of affection and desire found in a romantic relationship, this can be transferred to all those we meet. Once again, we do not need to be in love with all those we meet, but we can still choose to make love our aim.
Another way of understanding how we need to treasure one another is to look at one another like a prospector looks at a plot of land. When a prospector looks for gold, he does not care as much about what the land looks like, whether it has imperfections or weird rock formations, or if it’s hard to get to. No, he cares if he can find gold.
What we need to understand is each of us contains tremendous gold. Each human being, regardless of background, education, political view, car we drive, church we attend or not attend – each one of us possesses a tremendous fortune that others can discover and appreciate. For some it can be harder to see than others, but we all still contain gold within us.
If we all keep in mind the understanding that we all possess tremendous value, it will be easier for us to treat one another well. It will be easier to overlook certain annoyances, weaknesses, and faults held by others, because these things never diminish the treasure we all possess, even though society tries to push the opposite idea on us.
Once we realize that we possess gold within us, we can then help others become aware of the treasure they possess as well. We can build one another up by focusing on the good and encouraging one another. Help others see they too possess gold within themselves and treat them accordingly.
If you walked around giving everyone you saw a $100 bill, you would have a good number of friends. Many of these people would easily overlook your imperfections and short comings. Some might even go out of their way to do so.
What we receive from one another by way of human interaction, affection, and appreciation is worth a lot more than $100. It is priceless. However, if it helps, when we encounter someone who we don’t like, do not agree with, or have any other issue with, we can pretend as if they are giving us a $100 bill as we encounter them.
This is not being fake. Truly, this is simply putting your best self forward. You are controlling yourself to allow another human to be loved by you in the way that they deserve. You are showing respect and appreciation, which we all deserve.
It’s important to remember that we deserve these things not because of what we do, but because of the treasure that we are. Every one of us is worth far more than a great amount of gold found in a plot of land. Let us keep this in mind when we encounter one another and treat each other like we would a million dollars.
