Daily Devotional
Cultivate different facets of love each day this month.February 26: Empathy in Love
- Scripture: Romans 12:15 – Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
- Reflection: Delve into how empathy enhances our ability to love others through understanding their feelings and experiences. Dr. Brene Brown offers this perspective. “So, what is empathy and why is it VERY different than sympathy? Empathy fuels connection. Sympathy drives disconnection… Empathy is feeling WITH people. I always think of empathy as this kind of sacred space. When someone’s in a deep hole and they shout from the bottom and they say “I’m stuck. It’s dark. I’m overwhelmed.” and we look and we say “Hey” and climb down and say “I know what it’s like down here, and you’re not alone.”“… She says the four steps to use when building empathy:
- Perspective Taking, or putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.
- Staying out of judgement: instead use active listening.
- Recognizing emotion in another person that you have maybe felt before.
- Communicating that you can recognize that emotion.
- Spiritual Practice Prompt: Spend time with someone who is struggling and practice active listening.
SONG
- One Call Away by Charlie Puth: https://youtu.be/BxuY9FET9Y4?si=poOzwBv8zdWbRctI
Empathy, a moment’s compassion, seeing that everyone has equal value, even people who have behaved badly, is as magnetic a force as gratitude. It draws people to us, thus giving us the capacity to practice receiving love, the scariest thing of all, and to experience the curiosity of a child. And, as it turns out, the family is the most incredible, efficient laboratory, in which we can learn to work out the major blocks to these, which of course we got from the family in the first place. If we do the forgiveness work, forgiving our families and ourselves, they become slightly less “them,” and we become slightly more “we.” It’s ultimately about reunion. You might as well start this process at the dinner table. That way you can do this work, for which you were born, in comfortable pants. Maybe on this side of the grave, you’ll never forgive or be able to stand your wife’s brother or your sister’s child, and that’s okay, but don’t bank on never. I don’t so much anymore. Yes, it’s hard hard hard, but when I’m having a good time with my big messy family, I notice and savor it, and I say thank you, that this came from a place of joy and absurdity, that it turns out we have it in us to laugh. And who knows, we may again—later today, tomorrow, or in patient, patient time. — Anne Lamott