It Starts Small

In today’s scripture we look at learning to cultivate heartfelt listening skills. This was a gift Ruth Graham took seriously. As a way of overcoming loneliness as a young girl, she learned to show compassion to others.

Is God challenging you to adjust your outlook or attitude?

When we choose to to adopt a positive godly attitude, our outlook is directly impacted along with our personality and relationships. When we chose to take the time ask those around us how they are doing and genuinely care about their response, we gain a more realistic perspective of a person’s circumstances and put ourselves into a position to show compassion.

Ruth Graham, wife to evangelist Billy Graham was known to be the glue that held the Graham family together. She was known as having a Christ-like compassion and would give anyone the dress off her back. In fact, she did just that. During a world evangelism event, a visiting pastor from Africa was telling her he did not even have the money to bring his wife a dress from America. Without thought, she gave the pastor not only one, but several dresses for his wife.

Courageously exercise compassion by putting the following into practice:

• Set aside judgment. When someone is hurting, arrogant, or downright mean, consider what difficulty they may be facing and offer to pray for them.
• Accept differences. We all come from different backgrounds, upbringings, life experiences, and levels of spiritual growth. Strive to be considerate of your differences.
• Ask and listen attentively. Challenge yourself everyday to ask, “How are you?” Listen attentively to their answer. You could change the course of someone’s day by just showing you are listening. They are seen and heard and you care.

God expects us to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient, and forgiving toward others.

Notice all of these are actions. You can not do any of these without taking action. Today, write down ways you can be compassionate towards others. Then exercise that compassion.

Who is the Lord leading you to be compassionate towards?

© Kimberlee Smith 2025 http://www.itstartssmall.com All rights reserved.