Read this a few days late and many of the comments are already in the direction I am going, but maybe this is a bit different.

Kristin, I think your insight is one of the cardinal insights of interpretation, not just of the Bible, but of all communication.  If it is to "grow with us," it has to be with an ever enlarging contextual field.   As you point out by using your daughter's example, what would you want specifically, soon runs out of usefulness as the context broadens.  Then, we have to say, "Not would you care about this specific behavior, but what about the attitude behind it -- how would you want your sister to respond to what you do specifically care about, perhaps drinking the last soft drink without asking if you would like to split it, etc.?"  I think many of us never move up the contextual ladder in our relationships with friends, mates, and family.  And, it is a shame, if I am still giving my wife chocolates for Valentine Day after several years just because I would like chocolates for Valentines Day.  I have grown a little if I ask, "Would she rather be taken out for supper on Valentine's Day?"  But, I have grown even more if I can apply the Golden Rule and realize that she doesn't really care much about Valentine's Day at all, and instead ask, :What really is a special treat for her?"  etc.  The more we grow the more the Golden Rule becomes not about me, but about who the other person really is.  Jesus understood this quite well in the Gospel accounts of how he applied it in respoonding to other people by doing for them what he would like done for him in the biggest context of all -- what we all wish is that other people OBSEVED US CAREFULLY ENOUGH and KNEW US WELL ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT THAT REALLY MEANS.