daily strength for daily needs: August 21

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. ~ROM. xv. 1.

The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. ~ISAIAH 1.4

If there be some weaker one,
Give me strength to help him on;
If a blinder soul there be,
Let me guide him nearer Thee.
~J. G. WHITTIER.

Opportunities of doing a kindness are often lost from mere want of thought. [ . . .] Ask "What should I like myself, if I were hard-worked, or sick, or lonely?" Cultivate the habit of sympathy.

Ask Him to increase your powers of sympathy: to give you more quickness and depth of sympathy, in little things as well as great. Opportunities of doing a kindness are often lost from mere want of thought. Half a dozen lines of kindness may bring sunshine into the whole day of some sick person. Think of the pleasure you might give to some one who is much shut up, and who has fewer pleasures than you have, by sharing with her some little comfort or enjoyment that you have learnt to look upon as a necessary of life,--the pleasant drive, the new book, flowers from the country, etc. Try to put yourself in another's place. Ask "What should I like myself, if I were hard-worked, or sick, or lonely?" Cultivate the habit of sympathy.
~Jean Nicolas Grou in Daily Strength for Daily Needs edited by Mary W. Tileston