Compassion

For the last several weeks, I've been hearing the same thing in the sermons at church and the ones I listen to online.  Of course, the pastors are speaking of different things every week, but by the time it hits my ears, they all have changed into the same message:  I need more compassion for others.

I've mentioned that this is one of the most difficult things I've been working on in my 'Hypocrisy' post, and through my last post, you can tell why.  I know it's something that I really need, but when I pray for the gift of compassion, I only do so half-heartedly.  It's not that I don't want to...  It's just that...  well...  I don't want to.  There are certain traits in people that I admire, and if there are people that I know that don't have these traits, then I find it hard to like them, and even harder to be compassionate.

I do try, though, as I've shown in the 'Do what you can when you can' post.  I've made significant improvement when I look at myself, too.  Honestly, I've never prayed for anyone besides me until the middle of March.  That's when I started praying that God give me compassion for the people around me.  Now I actually have a list of people that I care about and that I pray for.  The list is very small and quite short, and for the first time, my family members have made it to that list.

So here's the list:
My four family members
A couple people from my life group
The seniors graduating from the youth group (four)
The youth pastor

Yes, it's a very short list of people, and even my best friends have not made it on there.  But I really find it hard to pray when I'm not being sincere about wishing these other people well and praying that they will live their lives to benefit God.  For example, the people who were injured in the bombing don't even come up in my mind when praying.

So my prayer is that I be more compassionate towards others around me.  That I'll have a heart for them so that I can pray for them.  And also that God open up my mind and heart to be willing to change to be more compassionate.