It often requires effort to find common ground with those who think, look, live, or pray differently than we do. But sometimes it can be even harder to find common ground in our existing interpersonal relationships.
What we need to learn is that when we love someone—a partner, a friend, or a family member—and they exhibit unpleasant mood swings or push our buttons, we still need to extend them love without agenda, just as we would have them extend love to us with all of our frailties and shortcomings.
This doesn’t mean that we cannot set healthy boundaries or that we have to put up with someone treating us badly. It does mean, however, that we need to allow those close to us to feel that they are a part of us—even when they are “off their game” so to speak or when they act like a child rather than an adult.
We can receive the gift of unconditional love when we are ready and willing to extend it ourselves.
Affirmation for the Day:
I extend unconditional love to others and thereby bring that same love into my own life. I create harmony between myself and other people, and this harmony ripples out from me to the rest of the world.
