Do not do unto others as you would that they do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.
George Bernard Shaew
The quote above does not negate the Golden Rule found in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. It gives guidance. Love, acceptance, and respect look different to different people.
A friend showed me a wedding present that was different from her tastes and would never be used. We were amused by it. However, my friend’s perspective changed when the giver shared that the item was the one wedding gift she had longed for thirty years earlier but had not received.
Four summers later, I was pregnant with my first child. An acquaintance delivered her first child a month before me. During church announcements, we were urged to visit her that afternoon. My husband thought we should. I disagreed. Hours after delivery, I wouldn’t want a room full of close friends, certainly not acquaintances.
I was wrong. Lindy was disappointed we had not joined the crowd.
How do you discern?
Maybe raising children was just giving them the things you loved most in the world and hoping that they loved them too.
Kevin Wilson, Nothing to Look At
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