A girl visited me recently stating that she hated another
girl in her office. She gave as her reason that the other girl was
prettier, happier, and wealthier than she, and, in addition, was
engaged to the boss of the company where they worked.
One day after the marriage had taken place, the crippled
daughter (by a former marriage) of the woman whom she
hated came into the office. The child put her arms around her
mother and said, “Mommy, mommy, I love my new daddy!
Look what he gave me!” She showed her mother a wonderful
new toy. She said to me, “My heart went out to that little girl,
and I knew how happy she must feel. I got a vision of how happy this woman was. All of a sudden I felt love for her, and
I went into the office and wished her all the happiness in the
world, and I meant it.” In psychological circles today, this is
called empathy which simply means the imaginative projection
of your mental attitude into that of another. She projected her
mental mood or the feeling of her heart into that of the other
woman, and began to think and look out through the other
woman’s brain. She was actually thinking and feeling as the
other woman, and also as the child, because she likewise had
projected herself into the mind of the child. She was looking
out from that vantage point on the child’s mother.
If tempted to injure or think ill of another, project
yourself mentally into the mind of Moses and think from the
standpoint of the Ten Commandments. If you are prone to
be envious, jealous, or angry, project yourself into the mind
of Jesus and think from that standpoint, and you will feel the
truth of the words Love ye one another.