Thought for the week

IN Glasgow earlier this month, the world leaders gathered to discuss tackling climate change. Preserving our planet is a shared responsibility between governments, the global sector of industry and the citizens of planet earth.

Governments are required to set policies, industry to seek more environmentally friendly methods of production and us as citizens to adopt a lifestyle that reduces carbon emissions.

The summit emphasised the importance of world unity in tackling a problem that affects everyone and of a sense of responsibility towards the coming generations who would be much more affected than our own.

Cop-26 also moved me to think about the importance of protecting a different kind of environment that affects everyone, namely our social network of interactions.

It is a common responsibility of all of us to create a healthy work environment, a warm family atmosphere and a friendly neighbourhood. Such a healthy environment requires values of mutual respect and support and tolerance for our differences.

We are supposed to encourage the faint hearted, to guide the beginners, to support and to protect the weak and the vulnerable, to appreciate the work of our superiors and educators and to be sensitive towards the condition of our neighbours.

Our social environment needs a warm smile, a caring attitude, intuitive ears and a sweet tongue especially in the use of social media.

“Love is not a feeling. It is an act of the will” and slightly over two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus Christ asked us to offer unconditional love to each other in His Sermon on the Mount, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matthew 5: 46)

His words are still relevant today.