It’s not uncommon to wish that the people in our lives would treat us better than they do, even that they would treat us as well as we know we ought to treat them. We wish our friends would be the ones to reach out instead of us, that our spouse would say “sorry” first, and that our enemies would forgive us before we forgive them. But we know that we’re supposed to do the right things on our own, regardless of what the people around us do. This can seem unfair, as it might see us always being the bigger person first, always doing for others the things that we wish were done for us.

But really this is only a limited view. If we widen our perspective, we realize that before we ever showed unreciprocated good to someone else, Jesus did so first to us. Jesus was the bigger person who fought for our hearts when we didn’t deserve it. Jesus was the one that took the high road when we were selfish and sinful. Jesus was the one who loved us before we loved him. Thus, any lopsided good that we now put out into the world is only paying it forward.

Some might say that maturity is being willing to do what’s right even when there isn’t any reward, but deeper wisdom is recognizing the reward was already given long before.