Consideration

"Service to the friends is service to the Kingdom of God, and consideration shown to the poor is one of the greatest teachings of God."~'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá

a change of heart...

Again consideration appears making it apparent to me how important is its practice. I have been thinking and speaking to my husband about the purpose of the work we strive to progress in our faith community. On Friday, I am to convene a group of tutors who have been training in offering a series of courses of study designed to prepare individuals to serve their communities. One of the things I have sought to learn about is how to describe to my friends, family and acquaintances, what this course of study actually is and how it may be beneficial to them. This will be the focus of conversation on Friday. It is these conversations that I need to engage in more readily and find words and a tone that is genuine. I realise that I still am full of all the taunts and jeers from my school days when fellow students and teachers would make direct disparaging remarks toward me because my family were Baha'is. This memory creates tremendous fear of rejection and ridicule of what it is I have to say. I often think that this rejection stems from how I approach the subject rather than perhaps the fact that that heart is simply not ready or willing to listen. In speaking with my husband, I realised that this whole process is all about love. I am all about distilling things down to manageable concepts that I may then learn to speak about with more ease. I say it is about love as I have completed many courses in the sequence and I believe that each is offering to us the tools to open our hearts to God, to ourselves and to others. It focuses on the qualities that we need to be able to express that love more readily even though the way of society makes it difficult to do so easily. It helps me to understand how showing love through serving others will bring about a change in another heart. As hearts, one by one, begin to become more tender and accepting of one another, then change happens in the manner of our interactions. This is the lasting change that is needed to rid the world of all forms of prejudice. It says in the Baha'i Writings that our world is in a stage of adolescence in terms of its growth. It has moments of maturity which are beset with turbulent bouts of childishness. This is a necessary phase to navigate just as it is in our physical growth. Many transitions are occurring simultaneously. As the world matures this means that we as human beings are in a state of transformation. The Divine Educators have come to the world with messages of love and unity to help us to transform into the best version of human beings and to assist this world to advance. Learning about how to love is an important component of this process. I believe it is necessary to have a sequence of courses about how to love one another because it is taught nowhere else. We know what it looks like not to practice love, to exhibit, hate, enmity and bitterness. But what does it take to really love someone? How may we orient our lives toward this practice? I will continue to ponder these ideas today and strive to strengthen this element of showing love by being thoughtfully concerned about the needs of those directly around me and beyond.