Are there people in your life who you love just enough to get by? Are there situations that would be better if you loved better? Are there some people you have a hard time liking, let alone loving? Does that affect how you interact or speak with them?
As I was struggling with this in my own life, I recalled how Mama taught me to, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I was intrigued to learn that this Christian lesson had roots in most faiths:
- "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful."-Buddhism
- "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man."-Judaism
- "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself."-Islam
- "Blessed is he who preferred his brother before himself."-Baha'i Faith
- "Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you."-Confucianism
Often the people who are hardest to love are the ones who need it the most. It is easy (if not obligatory!) to reach out to someone we love on Valentine's Day.
What if we also reached out to someone who is "harder" to love? Who could you love better?
No matter your faith base, few can disagree with this definition of love: "Love is patient; love is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself; love is not rude; love does not seek its own interests; loves is not quick-tempered; love does not brood over injury; love does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
Join me now in substituting your name in place of the word "love" and read that paragraph again.
As I do so, I'm humbly reminded to love better. Maybe it's not too late to put that on my New Year's Resolution list.
Love,
LeAnn
