Mutual Appreciation

In our training of spiritual guides at SGTI, one of the core principles that we hope to invite from our students is mutual appreciation. As we explore the world's religious traditions, spiritual expressions and cultural contexts, it is important that our mind sets reflect openness; our hearts be warm and hospitable. Mutual appreciation sprouts from this fertile soil and is essential for good spiritual guidance to take place.

In one of the recent "Universal Wisdoms" we send out to our list of subscribers, we spoke of mutual appreciation. Here is the text that was sent:

"In their book, The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew—Three Women Search for Understanding, co-author Priscilla  Warner, a Jew, speaks about an encounter with her rabbi, Jeffrey. 

"I explained to Jeffrey that I wanted to choose a religious story to share, something that added a message of tolerance. "You know," said Jeffrey, shaking his head, "I never liked the word 'tolerance.' It's too passive. It's not a call to engage and understand someone else. I like the phrase 'mutual appreciation.' That can lead to an understanding that no one faith has a monopoly on truth." 

We then offered Reflection Questions for our subscribers to ponder:

1. Does the distinction between 'tolerance' and 'mutual appreciation' resonate with you?

2. Take a few moments to reflect on a time when you were tolerant of another. How did this feel? Now reflect upon an incident in which mutual appreciation was experienced. How did this feel? ​

Perhaps, you would like to take a few moments to reflect on these, too. And, of course, you can always subscribe to "Universal Wisdom" yourself and receive these thought-provoking messages in your Inbox each week. We hope they will guide you on your interfaith journey. 

You can find information on this free subscription service here.