All of us must daily do whatever we can within our sphere of influence to ensure that we treat every human being with love, respect and dignity, and ensure that we acknowledge the image of God in every person. Together, we can be the difference we want to see in this world.
When prayer is a struggle, do not worry about the prayers that you cannot pray. You yourself are a prayer to God at that moment. All that is within you cries out to Him. And he hears all the pleas that your suffering soul and body are making to Him with groanings which cannot be uttered.
How do the lost and hurting feel around you? Do they sense your compassion and concern, or do they feel devalued, shamed, or belittled?
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
Pity will imitate compassion while simultaneously hiding it from us. Pity wants nothing more than for us to think we are acting with compassion, so we believe we are doing something good and godly, while in reality we are assisting evil. Knowing the difference is crucial, here’s a few ways to recognize that difference: Pity steals power (by doing for others what they can do themselves) while compassion imparts it. Pity will let others convince us they are helpless so we step in and rescue them, thereby strengthening the victim mindset in them. Compassion refuses to believe people are helpless and allows them opportunities to discover that. Pity leaves people in their problems while compassion pulls them out. Pity hides the truth to protect emotions, compassion tells the truth in a loving way. Pity seems nice but isn’t. Compassion sometimes appears mean but is truly kind. Don’t let pity hide the very thing it’s pretending to be.
While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight; I’ll fight to the very end!
Live in the wisdom of accepted tenderness. Tenderness awakens within the security of knowing we are thoroughly and sincerely liked by someone… Scripture suggests that the essence of the divine nature is compassion and that the heart of God is defined by tenderness.
You do not need a special gift or some special calling. You just need a big heart to make a difference, one person at a time. Just do it!
With the help of grace, the habit of saying kind words is very quickly formed, and when once formed, it is not speedily lost. Sharpness, bitterness, sarcasm, acute observation, divination of motives, – all these things disappear when a man is earnestly conforming himself to the image of Christ Jesus. The very attempt to be like our dearest Lord is already a well-spring of sweetness within us, flowing with an easy grace over all who come within our reach.
If you, your heart, your will, are enlisted on the good side, if you are wishing and trying that the good in you should conquer the bad, then you are on the side of God Himself, and God is on your side; and “if God be for us, who shall be against us?” Take courage, then. If thou dislikest thy sins, so does God. If thou art fighting against thy worst feelings, so is God. On thy side is God who made all, and Christ who died for all, and the Holy Spirit who alone gives wisdom purity, nobleness. How canst thou fail when He is on thy side? On thy side are all spirits of just men made perfect, all wise and good souls in earth and heaven, all good and wholesome influences, whether of nature or of grace, of matter or of mind. How canst thou fail if they are on thy side?