“Fortunately, the requirement to love others is not a mandate to like them. Love is a choice to act in loving ways, regardless of whether we actually feel loving toward a person at any given time.”
~ A Woman’s Daily Prayer Book
Reference to 1 John 4:7
This message brings comfort to me as I hope it does for you because it proves that it is possible to love someone you dislike. This can be done on a human level. Using a little wordsmithing here...while it is not okay to hate someone which can lead to violence, it is okay to have a strong dislike for them which can reach more towards the opposite way of the spectrum - to forgiveness. But we must love each other. Within how we work culturally within our society, it is safe to say that when one does not like what someone does, it is much easier to forget and let it go. But when one introduces the word hate, everything turns serious with the other person making it much harder for either one to let go of that word and follow up to it with damage.
When you tell a friend that you hate something that someone else said, does your friend reply with, “Oh, it’s nothing, let it go,”? Or do they reply with, “I hate that too, we should never hang out with them again”? Most of the time it's the second option that is the default answer.
If you think about it, there’s usually an action word that comes after the hate. While it can be used for good as a motivator, it is also used as a way to hurt other people. So I’m enlightening you today with the good news that there is a safer and less destructive way to feel about someone you do not like. We can use a better substitute word to express our emotions just like how we teach our children about this same topic. We can dislike a little bit or a lot. But let’s try not to use the word hate and keep the love going.
I really believe that if there are more people doing this simple practice, there will be extra room for positivity to replace all of the hate circulating in our world today. Join me in making a better change on how we communicate with each other because it is some HARD WORK!
Let's Act Better.
Let's Be Better.
Pass this along to a friend.
