Love Every One You Meet, Even When It’s Hard
Even when it’s you.
Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them. — Bruce Lee
I went to church today, with a friend. The message of the service really hit home with me.
Love everyone you meet, even if you don’t think they deserve it.
The speaker shared stories of parents finding deep forgiveness for the people who killed their children. Those parents, she said, wanted those killers to go on and live good lives. To do good things. They also wanted to know why — to understand why what happened, happened.
What I wanted her to say, although she didn’t go there, was that God wants us to love everyone, even if we don’t think they deserve it — including ourselves.
Self-love is some hard stuff. Self-forgiveness, too.
It requires seeing ourselves as hurting, vulnerable, and broken. It means accepting that we’ve made bad decisions. And it means embracing the person who made those decisions and instead of wanting that person to die or rot in prison, loving them. It means making an honest effort to understand what’s behind the behavior that has lead to a need for self-love or self-forgiveness (or, probably, both.)
