Lent gives us the opportunity to reflect on how we can use our faith to be our best selves. And there's no greater example than the life of the much-loved saint, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
The saint, who devoted her long life to serving the poor, often shared some simple ways in which we can improve ourselves on a daily basis. And in The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living, a compilation of her wisdom, we find some essentials for bringing a little more humility into our lives.
Interestingly, Mother Teresa died before the turn of this century, yet hers is advice that we should really adhere to today. This is particularly true as we navigate the world of social media, in which people sometimes feel capable of sharing opinions and ideas that are far from humble.
The Joy in Loving shares these steps to humility from Mother Teresa, and as you'll see, most of them unwittingly provide the basic guidelines for being a good communicator on social media:
- To speak as little as possible of one's self.
- To mind one's own business.
- Not to want to manage other people's affairs.
- To avoid curiosity.
- To pass over the mistakes of others.
- To accept insults and injuries.
- To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.
- To be kind and gentle even under provocation.
- Never to stand on one's dignity.
- To choose always the hardest.
While we can take these pearls of wisdom to live a more humble life, we can also be sure to share them with our children to help them not only behave more virtuously in their daily lives, but also to be kind when online.
