There are two ways that love helps me, now and then, to see real people through the filter of my insecurities.
One of them is a growing power to love myself enough to be
thankful for what I am, and to forgive myself for what I am not! I feel
this power intermittently, I admit, but I feel it enough to get my eyes
off my anxieties about myself and get a focus on what is going on with
other people.
Love also helps me to get outside of myself long enough to
discover that the people whose favor I need so much are as weak and
needy as I am. They are trusting me to care about them while I am
struggling to see them through the haze of my own anxieties. If I
discern them in their needs, I am getting the imagination to catch a
moment of grace when it comes. :)
This is a quote from Marianne Williamson's book - Return to Love.
It has taken me a lot of years to try to focus more on the other person and quit thinking of myself so much. I believe that this is human nature(to think of ourselves more than the other person),but I do notice that people really like to be around you when you actually listen closely to what they are saying and show that you care.
It is easy to not listen very well. I am trying hard to give full attention to the person I am with and not think of my little world so much.
It's always a work in progress.....
I am always reminded of how blessed I am.
All I have to do is turn on the TV and see on the news what so many other people in the world are dealing with. Right now they are focusing a lot on the big Typhoon that hit in the Phillipines. Thousands are dead and Thousands more are wounded and displaced.
The scenes of graphic destruction are everywhere.It is so sad and depressing to see.
Yet we have people close to home that have many hardships, too.
Yesterday I took a Gal and her son to the Dr. and to run some errands. She and her family are homeless right now. They don't have a car and a job either. Jay (my husband, the Bishop) is trying to help them get back on their feet. It is sad to see how hard it is on them and their family. But I'm finding that we can only do so much to help......then we have to let go and pray that their lives can get better. It does make you sooooo Thankful for your own life and all the luxuries that you have. (i.e: a warm home, a car, a job,running water, food, clothes, etc.)
I hope and pray that I will always keep a grateful heart.
Gratitude and Love - that's what it's all about.
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