Leo Buscaglia, “professor of love,” once talked about a contest where he was asked to be a judge. “The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

“When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, ‘Nothing, I just helped him cry.’”

Rare is the friend who knows how to weep with those who weep! Such a friend we all need to have. But first of all, such a friend we need to be!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me a loving, sensitive heart to feel my brother/sister’s pain, and learn how to weep with him/her in their time of sorrow and grief. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Romans 12:15.