“Deliberately Diverse” represents the individual thoughts and opinions of a group of Taylor friends who almost never completely agree about anything but are gratified by the opportunity to stimulate deliberately diverse discussions in our beloved community.
Today’s column represents the thoughts and opinions of Robin McKinley, Taylor resident and writer of grammystexasgarden. com. NOT the Taylor Press.
I was baptized as an infant in the Methodist church, and my family attended church weekly.
I went through periods not attending church, but when I moved to Taylor, the first thing I did was join a church.
I love going to church, and from my 71 years, I have concluded there is one thing in Jesus’s teachings that is important above all else – love one another. Being a fan of Star Trek, I like the idea of the “Prime Directive,” which is their guiding principle in making decisions. I started calling the commandment to love one another the Prime Directive because it is our guiding principle.
Jesus called loving one another one of the two most important commandments. Jesus even went so far as to say love your enemies.
Because Jesus was so clear in the commandment of loving one another, I don’t understand how so many who call themselves Christians can promote so much hate. It is so easy to find reasons to hate other people. We can hate people because of their faith, their sexual orientation, the color of their skin, their hair, their clothes, even their fingernails. Almost any reason will do. I’ll grant you it is harder to find reasons to love, but that is what we have been called to do. Love.
We are often presented with situations that make it very hard to love. I had a neighbor with two teenagers that drove over my flower bed. To make the bed more obvious, I installed a small wooden edging.
They drove over that.
Then, I built a small rock wall, thinking that at least it wouldn’t cost me to replace it. Then they drove over the rock wall. By this time, I was forgetting the Prime Directive. Every time I looked at the corner of my plant bed, I got mad.
One day, I realized I was spending a lot of time hating (which was not fun at all), and not a lot of time following the Prime Directive. This realization caused a shift in my thinking. Even thinking about loving them helped me feel better.
I started thinking that I didn’t know my neighbors very well. They probably had troubles in their life. Everybody does. My little garden bed didn’t make it into their top ten, I’m sure.
Sending him mental love is going to take one trouble off my list.
That is the genius of Jesus’s teachings.
Loving one another is a lot easier than hating one another. Think for a minute of something or someone you love and notice how that feels to you. Then, think of something you hate.
I’ll bet you feel happier when you think of love.
We can’t change what other people do, but we can change what we do.
Love is the most important commandment from Jesus, and it is the pathway to a happier life.
The next time you are tempted to hate, remind yourself to follow the Prime Directive.
