I had this great post planned for today—a follow–up to the soapmaking from last week—but it’s been one of *those* weeks.

You know the kind.

It’s exam week, so the pile of research papers I have to grade just keeps growing and growing. I was supposed to see a play with my AP students tonight, but the box office didn’t keep track of our reservation and now we can’t go. My thesis professor—who is wonderful, please don’t get me wrong—had me revise my thesis prospectus 9 times, which I didn’t expect and thus didn’t allot time for but had to get done.

Sigh.

Did I mention that I caught the severe sore throat that’s going around school right now? Oh, yes.

But the real reason I’m hosting this pity party for myself is that I received a rude email at work. I won’t go into all the details here—and believe me, I know this is such a minimal problem—but it got my week off to a negative start, and I’ve been dealing with all those awful feelings of disappointment and hurt feelings and being misunderstood.

And then I picked up Mere Christianity, my old paperback copy that has scribbles all over it and nearly every page dog–eared. And I happened to flip toward the end. And I happened to read this.

A real desire to believe all the good you can of others and to make others as comfortable as you can will solve most of the problems.

A good reminder, isn’t it? And in my experience, it works.

Clinging to this and remembering that the second of the great commandments ain’t always easy, my friends. But you know what? We follow it anyway.