Keeping Our Center ~ Day 63

Mother Teresa once said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”

And she is SO right (though I don’t always appreciate that). Jesus never said, “Judge others as I have judged you.” Nope. He said, “Love others as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) Heavy sigh. This is hard stuff.

For example, Julie and I were heading to my second mom’s house in West Allis this last weekend to do some yard work that she just can’t do anymore, and Julie looked at all the cars on the road and said, “Why are all these people out here?” And I said, “Well, we’re out here, too!”

Or, here’s one of my biggest struggles… I have an intolerance for intolerance. Especially religious intolerance, the whole “I’m right and you’re wrong” thing.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Often I have to take a deep breath and remember that if I approach people and situations with an attitude of judging, that there is no room for loving them as the Divine calls me to do. And, sometimes it is really hard, almost impossible even, not to let that judgment creep in. Ok, I fail on a fairly regular basis, but I keep trying because each person has their own burdens that they carry, their own hurts and fears that haunt them. I can’t possibly know what drives folks to do what they do.

Loving another doesn’t mean that I have to agree with them, or bring them home and support them, or even become friends with them. It means that I do my best to see God in them (as I really do believe the spark of God is in every person) and to love the Essence of Light that is in them… sometimes very deep within them.

And then I pray that others will see past my own faults and failings as well.

Love & Light!

Kaye