mother teresa

while i don't agree with all of her theology i feel that mother teresa was a wonderful women and did a great deal to personify the compassion of Jesus. while i was working in nirmal hriday, her original home for the dying, i heard this story.

one day mother asked two volunteers to go and find a certain man that often came to her home for medical care and food. he hadn't been seen a while and she wanted to give him some food and make sure he was alright. after searching the volunteers found the man; he was filthy, covered in trash and his own excrement. the volunteers brought him back to the home and began to clean him up, dumping buckets of water over him. mother came outside and pulled them away from him; she sat him on her own lap and bathed him. her first priority was not to feed or heal, but to love him.

i have a plethora of her quotes, but this is one of my favorites.
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.