ENLARGE YOUR CIRCLE OF LOVE

ENLARGE YOUR CIRCLE OF LOVE Too often we only associate with people just like us, the people that look like us, and the people that have our same interest, have our personality type. It’s easy to include them. Being comfortable, that’s what we are used to. But what about people that don’t dress like us, the people that we don’t share the same background; people we do see as different? It’s very easy to just write them off and say ‘they are not like me, we don’t have the same religion, they have an addiction and I don’t. Real love is inclusive and not exclusive. That fellow in your class or office may not share your beliefs but that doesn’t give you the right to treat him as second class. Enlarge your circle of love; you don’t have to agree with everything about them, but be kind, be friendly, show acceptance. Get out of the box of saying he’s poor and I’m rich, he’s a Christian and I’m a Muslim. Be honest about judging people, do not hash by concluding based on their physical appearance. Really, what makes us to judge is pride; we say ‘I will never do that, I will never smoke, I will never wear what she has on. No, but the fact is, we’ve never been in their shoes, we were not raised the way they were raised, we have never had the experiences that they have. Most of our behavior is based on our experiences and the only person that knows is the other person. Let us quit judging other people, afterwards if not for the grace of God, most of us could have been worse. Deep on your inside you may say, ‘I can’t allow myself to be that indiscipline’, but you don’t have their genetics, you don’t have an idea of the battle they are fighting. When you see people struggling with an issue or having a negative quality, instead of been critical and judgmental, turn to God and thank Him for the grace He has given you. The word ‘prejudice means to pre-judge. It is wrong to judge others based on their look. For most of us we don’t choose our look God chose it for us and we can’t change our overlay make-up. Don’t just discard people just because they don’t meet up to your standard. It’s true some people are not blessed with good-look like me and you ( at least I include you) yet we may not be as attractive as its gets over our heads. That reminds me of the story of a lady who used to think so much of her beauty, considering other people to age faster than she. On one occasion she was invited to a dinner. On arriving at rhwe venue, she recognized on the guest list, the name of a guy she dated at high-school abouit thirty years ago. Few minutes later, an old man appeared. She thought to herself, “could this be him? He is so ugly, glasses and wrinkled I think he’s so old” she said, ‘sir, did you go to such and such high school and graduated such and such year? He said, ‘I sure did!’ she said, ‘I think you were in my class.’ He squeezed his face, and said ‘which subject did you teach?’ I’m not a fan of tattoo, but when I see somebody with one, I’m not going to judge them and put them into a category. Many years ago, a came up to me in a mall, he had all over his arms tattoos; completely covering them, because he lived a very rough life but recently repented his crooked ways. And now, he was about spending thousands of naira to get rid of the tattoos through surgical operation. Then he asked of my opinion. When I asked what his motive was for doing this, he said ‘because I don’t think my new friends will like me looking like this.’ I said to him; you do what you feel like about the surgery and if your friends don’t like you the way you are, they are not real friends and God will give you true friends. Find someone who does not deserve your love; enlarge your circle of love. If they draw their circle and shut you out, draw a larger circle to cover them. You may want to ask, Imole, what religion do you practice? I don’t even know what religion is, all I know is this; I believe in my God, I believe in sharing my faith, and I love everyone. What about the Muslims? I love them, they are God’s creation. What about the Hindus? They are God’s creation. It is a shame to treat another God’s creation with little respect, little value just because they don’t agree with your believe. Remember, when you are good to others, God will be good to you also.