refining the Golden Rule

I have this friend. Her name is Katelyn. I've written about her before. We met freshman year. She's one of those people who deeply affects your life in almost imperceptible yet really important ways. She's the kind of person who, if she weren't in my life, I think I would be a different person.

{When we were college freshmen littles}

Our sophomore year in college we were approaching a time of year that I was very excited for. I kept talking about it and asked her how excited she was. She responded that she really wasn't that excited, and I was flummoxed. How could you not be excited about this? I asked. She explained to me that just because I was so excited about something didn't mean that she was, and she actually had really good reasons to not feel the same way I did.

{Katelyn's birthday 2007}

So, here's the thing. Living the Golden Rule is important. Really important. But you need to live it with empathy. Living the Golden Rule doesn't mean that we all think and feel the same--actually it's the opposite. We need to listen, and we need to live with empathy.

This post is part of a 31-day series on gracious living. You can find the other posts here.