Love should be the silver thread that runs through all your conduct. Kindness, gentleness, long suffering, forbearance, patience, sympathy, a willingness to enter into childish troubles, a readiness to take part in childish joys, - these are the cords by which a child may be led most easily, - these are the clues you must follow if you would find the way to his heart.

I pray for him. It's very difficult to dislike someone for whom you are praying.

Compassion is the key no matter what the line of work you are in.

Man is shut out from Heaven and Peace and Truth only in so far as he shuts out others from his sympathy. Where his sympathy ends his darkness and torment and turmoils begin.

A man's sympathy extends just so far as his wisdom reaches, and no further; and a man only grows wiser as he grows tenderer and more compassionate. To narrow one's sympathy is to narrow one's heart, and so to darken and embitter one's life.

Healthy relationships don't feel threatening. Loving relationships don't feel cruel. Secure relationships don't feel as if everything could implode if you dared to draw a boundary.

The emptiness in your heart because that person you love doesn't seek to really understand you, rarely cheers you on, and doesn't seem to want to connect intimately with you.

8Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

When people see us, do they see the compassion of their Creator? If so, I guarantee when the enemy sees us he shakes with fear. He isn't scared of the judgmental soul shellacked with a fake sense of perfection. But the compassionate soul who has hurt deeply and come out loving? Yes, she is one of the superstars of God's grand story, and the one you want near you in the battles of life.

Or, "Most of the time when you open your mouth, make known the gospel. But if you're feeling really, really hurt, rally other people around your cause and make this other person look as bad as you can.

In the meantime, it's unfair of me to use my expectations as the standard for their behavior or hold it against them when they don't live up to my hopes.

The need to belong goes beyond the need for superficial social ties . . . it is a need for meaningful, profound bonding.