Respect

"Teach me to respect other people and the way they live and the things they believe. Help me never to be cruel. Help me to trust other people and leave them their freedom to be different."

Sister Wendy Beckett

If you are looking for a book of soul-stretching prayers, Sister Wendy Beckett's book, A Child's Book of Prayer in Art is a great one. We are on our third time through because we can't stand the thought of putting it down. The above painting is her choice of an illustration for the value of respecting others. It's a lesson I've come to late in life but I find it more reasonable to love people as they are rather than shape their behavior ala B.F. Skinner. 

Respect also takes you out of the many false frays, and asks you to truly listen to God's voice speaking to hear the real ones. It's a lot easier to fight like a partisan than it is to reach out and love the person in front of you. We all feel more comfortable if we know who the pariah is and that it isn't us. Times of hardship and stress make us feel it even more, but we have to be willing to bear the cross. We have assume the place of pariah.