A new look on the Golden Rule

I recently was reading a book that in one of the chapters was discussing the idea of the Golden Rule.  This book is “The myth of Equality” by Ken Wytsma. “‘Do to others as you would have them do to you,’ Sadly, this rule is all too often twisted into another that is only subtly different in structure but in fact can become a radical reinterpretation of the rule.  Throughout history, it has been referred to as the silver rule. Do not do to others as you would not have them do to you.”

His whole point was that we don’t go out of our ways to show love to others, the way that we would want to be shown love, but rather we just don’t want to hurt others, the way that we don’t want to be hurt.  We don’t go out of our way to show love to our neighbor, friends or family the way that we would want to be loved, but rather we just try not to rock the waves. While this is important to not try to hurt others, especially taking into consideration the way that we don’t want to be treated when talking to others, there should be more emphasis on going out of our way to make sure that others are being treated and loved the way that we would want to be treated.   

 The Golden Rule is actually supposed to revolve around others.  Do I spend a great time doing that for others? Do I take the time to write a random note for a person, especially when I know that they have had a rough time recently? Do I invite people to do some fun things with me over the weekends or on the week nights? 

This was something that I realized that I had not spent much time in doing.  There are so many things that I really want to see from people that I love in my own life.  There are times when I selfishly wish that someone would write me a letter, buy me a random gift, or ask me to do something really fun for the weekend.  I love when people take an amount of time to think of me. There are so many times that I almost think that the world is really all about me, and there needs to be more work done from other people to make sure that I am loved. 

The truth is that loving others is so hard.  It may be one of the hardest things to do at times. This is why the golden rule which is inherently very difficult.  We have to be thinking outside of ourselves about how to help someone else. We need to get out of our own head to enter into the mind of someone else’s.  I may not always know the best way that someone else feels loved, but I can try my best to make sure that I am showing everyone love in the best way that I possibly can.  

The purpose of the Golden rule is not caring about how you are being treated.  You can’t do anything sadly about how others treat you, but you can make sure that you are the one that is going out of your way to make sure that others are being loved that you would choose to be loved.