Skim

 

. . . don't worry. This isn't a post about what kind of milk the Roaches prefer. (Grahm says 2%, I say Skim. We compromise at 1% organic, in case you were curious.)

Question. Are you the kind of person who reads every word on every page?

My philosophy on reading is that life is too short to read bad books. (And no, Justin Beiber's book does not count. Legen-wait for it-dary.) Since I edit some pretty crap-tastic novels for a living, I'm pretty picky about what I read in the ten minutes before I fall asleep. If you think about it, this is actually a terrible perspective. 

You see, I'm a skimmer. My eyes quickly scan the words on a page, line after line until I grasp the big picture. (Maybe this is why I'm terrible with recipes.) It doesn't matter if I skip entire sentences, or even paragraphs at a time. Just as long as I get the gist. Unless there is some brilliantly written, hilarious prose (aka anything by Tina Fey), I don't need to be bogged down by every word.

. . . What if I treated people the way I handle books? I start and stop novels like Kim Kardashian and marriage. I lose interest quickly. I skim until I find something worthwhile. Pick 'em up, put 'em down until I find one worth flipping pages for. If I treated people this way, I wouldn't have any friendships, any real relationships to speak of.

The beautiful thing about life is that every one of us has a story, beautiful words on pages. God has carefully crafted the letters of lives, and every word is important; it all matters. I should care about each page of someone's life as He, the author, does.

If we are truly loving people, skimming isn't an option.