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Chapter 41—In Contact With Others
Every association of life calls for the exercise of self-control,
forbearance, and sympathy. We differ so widely in disposition,
habits, and education that our ways of looking at things vary. We
judge differently. Our understanding of truth, our ideas in regard to
the conduct of life, are not in all respects the same. The experience
of no two people is alike in every particular. The trials of one are not
the trials of another. The duties that one finds light are to another
most difficult and perplexing.
So frail, so ignorant, so liable to misconception is human nature,
that all of us should be careful in the estimate we place upon another.
We little know the bearing of our acts upon the experience of others.
What we do or say may seem to us of little consequence, but if our
eyes could be opened, we would see that upon it depended the most
important results for good or for evil.
Consideration for Burden Bearers
Many have carried so few burdens, their hearts have known so
little real anguish, and they have felt so little perplexity and distress
in behalf of others, that they cannot understand the work of true
burden bearers. They are no more capable of appreciating the heavy
responsibilities that others carry than are children of understanding
the care and toil of their burdened father. Children may wonder
at their father’s fears and perplexities. These appear needless to
them. But when years of experience have been added to their lives,
when they themselves come to bear heavy burdens, they will look
back upon their father’s life and understand that which once was so
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incomprehensible. Bitter experience has given them knowledge.
The work of many burden bearers is not understood or appre-
ciated until death lays them low. When others take up the burdens
they have laid down and meet the difficulties they encountered, then
associates can understand how faith and courage were tested. Often
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