My little cousin is full of questions and very few answers will satisfy her. It makes for interesting conversation, to say the least, but she came up with a tough one the other day.<\/p>\n
She was recounting some kids in her class who had different opinions than her’s, and we said that she should love them any way. You know, a kind of turn-the-other-cheek thing. Then she asked:<\/p>\n
“How do I love people I don’t know?”<\/p>\n
Now, there’s a stumper.<\/p>\n
It’s easy to love family or people who are kind to us, but loving the stranger on the street or the annoying neighbor is altogether different.<\/p>\n
If life teaches us anything, it’s that exchanging hate for hate gets you nowhere. I think the key to it all is compassion. No matter who it is, I try to imagine life in their shoes and how I would want to be treated. I don’t know about you, but I need forgiveness when I’m wrong. I need patience when I’m being stubborn. And most of all, when I’m acting unlovable, that’s when I need love the most. It makes sense that I would then show those virtues to others. It’s the golden rule: Do to others what you would want done to you.
\nCompassion can include a host of different things: bringing people food, asking how they are and genuinely listening for an answer, or even a simple smile. There’s no shortage of ways to love a stranger.
\nMy little cousin’s mother summed it up nicely. “Just be nice to them.”<\/p>\n
What do you do to show compassion everyday? How do you love people you don’t know?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My little cousin is full of questions and very few answers will satisfy her. It makes for interesting conversation, to say the least, but she came up with a tough one the other day. She was recounting some kids in her class who had different opinions than her’s, and we said that she should love…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,4,23,20,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-good-deeds","category-inspiring-messages","category-love","category-something-to-think-about","category-thought-to-ponder"],"yoast_head":"\n