Having Compassion

The above picture depicts perfectly what life around our house has been the past few days. Josiah has been cranky and for awhile we didn't know what it was. Then we saw the whites of his teeth begin to show. Josiah is getting four of his upper teeth all at once. As you can imagine he is in a lot of pain and he doesn't know how to handle it. So he goes from toy to toy trying to find something to relieve his pain, but nothing works. In the process he creates a huge mess. While I have tried everything from cold teething rings to Tylenol nothing seems to be able to sooth the pain. The only thing that seems to calm him down is love. When I pick him up and hold him he smiles and hugs me back. We sit in bed and read books and he laughs and giggles with me. Through this whole teething process God has taught me an important lesson. Sometimes people are dealing with difficult situations. They become cranky because they don't know how to handle the problem. When we become the victim of their bad attitude our first response is to fight back. But as with Josiah, sometimes love is what a person needs to help deal with the pain. They need to know that someone cares as they struggle through their tough situation. It is easy for me to love Josiah because he is my baby and I know why he is cranky. But God used this experience to show me that people need to be loved on even when it seems they are unloveable. God loved me when I was unloveable and now I know He is with me as I struggle through life. I hope that in the future when I encounter a difficult person I hope I can respond with compassion instead of anger. I want to strive be a light of God's love to them. Perhaps my light will help them deal with the problem better.