Treating Others With Respect

In the beginning of "The Ministry of Angels" by Holland, he states "Perhaps their most challenging realization, was the fact that they (Adam and Eve) would now be distanced from God, separated from Him with whom they had walked and talked, who had given them face-to-face counsel." I feel the burden of this distance from Heavenly Father everyday, when things go wrong, and when people are unkind "the pain reminds this heart, this is not our home" (Blessings, Laura Story). Sometimes, we behave towards each other in a way that is far less than the treatment that we as future god's and goddesses deserve. Why do we do this? I think it's because we are YEILDING to the natural man, the desire to be unkind when we are struggling or tired, because we feel entitlement due to our own suffering. But what right do we, as children of God with great responsibility to be TRUE to our spiritual nature,  have to treat others unkindly? There is no right. There is no rhyme or reason. The Savior, when being bound by his captors, paused to HEAL the man who's ear was cut off, the very man who was tying him up! Then how can I, who am by no means being bound and taken to my death, treat others with RESPECT at ALL TIMES? Yesterday, when I went into the employment office to receive paperwork for my job, the woman serving me was sarcastic and condescending. I left her office in tears, knowing that she had treated me as LESS than I am. But what had I done to "stand a little taller?" Nothing. I took her blows, and left feeling resigned. I didn't metaphorically, heal her ear. But what about next time? Next time, I will. And every time after that, because I believe that people DESERVE to be TREATED WELL, with love and respect, REGARDLESS of how they act.

"It is a serious thing," says Lewis, "to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Our charity must be a real and costly love."