Kindness Begins With Me

I've been rereading a book by Gordon B. Hinckley called Standing for Something. The author writes: "There is something reassuring about standing for something, and knowing what we stand for."

A lot of people are afraid to stand for anything at all, and wander through life without opinions or values. Those who do stand for something, however, often demonstrate it through conflict and argument. As the elections approach and tempers are short, I've given a lot of thought to this. I've found myself caught up in arguing over issues.

The secret, I think is to do as the title of the book suggests--stand for something. The title isn't "Stand against something." When we focus on what we're for, instead of what we're against, we find it easier to be kind to those whose ideas are different from our own. We're not focused on them--we're focused on our own values and that means we think of how to bring it to pass, not through knocking down the opponant, but by using positive action to bring our ideas into the world.

So we can be against abortion, and spend our time picketing outside an abortion clinic, which does nothing to resolve the root causes of abortion. Or we can be for letting babies be born, and spend our time easing the poverty that sometimes leads to abortion, or teaching teens the value of chastity, or improving adoption options. The latter is better for our souls, because we are really changing the world in a meaningful way, and focusing on love and service, not on anger towards the "enemy." We're happy as we see meaningful change occur, and we keep our spirits up by focusing on action, not anger.

I'm focusing some of my time right now on poverty. To that end, I'm teaching a free ESL class to immigrants.

What do you stand for and what are you doing about it that leads to meaningful change?