Trying to find compassion

These are the two most beautiful, most wonderful kids in my life right now. My cousins. I love them so much--though it kind helps that they are the absolutely cutest, most adorable kids you will find. They are also huge brats sometimes. But it's really easy to forgive them and have compassion for them not just because they are my blood but because I love them. I love the joy and the passion and the love that they bring to my life and I just love little children to.

It got me to thinking though. Why is it so hard for us to have compassion for everyone? Why is it hard for us to forgive everyone and love everyone? Why is it so hard for me to find compassion right now?

I know that God is teaching me how to love like he does. How to have eyes and ears and hands and arms like his. But it's a struggle against my flesh. I asked God for a greater capacity to love. I asked God to help me love like he does, but yet I find myself struggling to...aching, fighting to.

I thought that when I asked God to help me love more that I would feel it inside of me. I would feel my heart increase. I would feel it widen and deepen and broaden, but it feels like such a stretching process to get to a place of love for others in general. like something i have to consciously think about on a daily basis.

I ask myself, if I can't love an enemy how can I love the poor? The broken? The forgotten? The outcast?