“Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” 1 Peter 3:8

Once, Mother Theresa came to know about a poor family starving in a poor quarter of Kolkata, so she collected some food and approached the woman of the family. The starving family received the food with gratitude but to Mother’s surprise she happened to see the woman of the cottage dividing the food into two halves. Mother thought that she might be keeping it for future use. But when Mother came out of the cottage she saw the poor woman carrying a packet to the neighboring house. Mother wanted to know the truth, so she followed the woman to see her sharing the half that she kept aside with her neighbor.

Mother asked her “Even after you and your 4 children are being starved why did you share the food?” She replied, “They are also starving for the past 3 days like us.” This is real empathy. Today, Let us discuss Empathy.

Empathy is one of the emotional intelligence skills. It is a Christian virtue. It is the ability to emotionally understand what other people feel, see things from their point of view, and imagine yourself in their place. Essentially, it is putting yourself in someone else's position and feeling what they must be feeling.

An empathetic person excels at
• Service Mentality
• Amity: Sensing what others need to progress and strengthening their abilities.
• Leveraging diversity. Cultivating opportunities through diverse people.
• Political awareness. Reading a group’s emotional currents and power relationships.
• Understanding others
• Ability to imbibe inspiration from others

In education, we give preference to intelligent quotient (E.Q). Emotional intelligence (E.Q) is also equally important for children. If Emotional Intelligence is not developing with I.Q. children will become selfish, merciless, low self-esteemed, lacking in self-control, and lazy. Educated officers who run after bribe, educated people who behave mercilessly, who steal, commit murders, behave cruelly are examples of low E.Q. An Emotionally Quotient person will have self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills, and presence of mind.

Among the E.Q skills empathy ought to be high in a person then only that person will have the ability to feel himself in another person’s position and think. A person with empathy will have the mind to serve others and behave acceptably. The essence of life in Christ is in being empathetic.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another.” Romans 12:15-16