Kindness on the Road

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     Tonight I gave a friend a ride home and after I dropped her off and got back on the road the person behind me got very agitated. They were obviously in a hurry and even flashed their lights at me a couple times. It is easy to get caught up in a pattern of aggression. I often find myself calling another driver a name because they do something that aggravates me. Quite often my back seat drivers will call other drivers jerks, even when unwarranted, and I realize they are simply following my bad example. In order to help me remember to be a better model for my children I placed a sticker of Mother Teresa on my driver's side window. Each time I get behind the wheel I see it, and hopefully remember to treat those I meet on the road with kindness. Simply allowing another car to go first or giving up the right of way can cause a chain reaction and hopefully reverse the pattern of aggression so often found on the roadways.

It Begins in the Home

    

You may have guessed by the above quote that I am inspired by Mother Teresa. I think it goes beyond that. I love her. In fact I almost went to India to work with her sisters after college, but I ended up getting married instead. That was a difficult decision for me to make. Not because I didn't want to get married, but because I had lofty ideas about life as a missionary that didn't fit in with my idea of what married life was going to be. Boy was I wrong, and Mother Teresa would be the first one to tell me to stay here and do what I'm doing. She was a firm believer that we need to be missionaries in our own homes and neighborhoods. She even said "What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." This is much easier said than done. It is especially difficult to treat those we live with with kindness, sometimes even though they are the ones we love the most. I find it difficult more often than I would like to admit. It is way too easy to fall into a pattern of brusqueness with those you know will forgive you. But what begins in the home travels out into the world. If we receive harsh words in the morning we are more likely to be cross and short with those we meet throughout the day. And from whom do our children first learn to be kind if not from us? I fail at this frequently. I need to remind myself of it on a daily basis. It does not get easier with time either. If anything it gets harder. But I try to remember the words of Mother Teresa and ask for help from the one who inspired her. That's all any of us can do.