Why can’t we all just get along?

What makes family fun to be with?

When everyone gets along.

My boys are grown and are best friends now, but it wasn’t always that way. For the better part of a decade they bickered constantly. I would sometimes hear parents of one child complain about the work of parenting. I always wondered what they were complaining about. It seemed to me 90% of the pain of parenting came from dealing with sibling rivalry.

My younger son would sometimes pick on his older brother. He would walk up to him and poke him in the back of the head for no reason at all. My older son, who was four years older and usually about 50 pounds heavier, would wallop the daylights out of Dustin. Dustin would run off crying and complaining that his brother was mean to him. I never understood why Dawson had to react the way he did. His reaction seemed why out of proportion to the crime. More importantly, I never understood why Dustin was tempted to start it. He did this all the time. Couldn’t he see the pattern? They were both at fault. How many times I thought, “Why can’t we all just get along?”

What makes work a pleasure?

There may be more to it than this, but it sure helps when everyone gets along. It is not just the money, or the work itself. It is the camaraderie; the team.

What makes war tolerable? Williams Broyles wrote:
A part of me loved war. Now, please understand, I am a peaceful man, fond of children and animals. And I believe that war should have no place in the affairs of men. But, the comradeship our platoon experienced in that war provides a moving and enduring memory in me. A comrade in war is someone you can trust with anything because you regularly trust him with your life. In war, individual possessions and advantage count for nothing. The group, the unit, the platoon is everything. A part of me loved war.”

What ruins church life? I been in hundreds of churches conducting conferences and doing training. I can tell you without question what ruins church life: people can’t get along with each other. No matter how good the preaching, no matter how moving the music, no matter how effectively the church is organized, if people don’t get along it’s a real drag to go to church.

All of life is better if we can just get along. Why can’t we all just get along?

Josh Hunt, How to Get Along With Almost Anyone, 2014.