Walking The Walk

"A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense." ~Proverbs 19:11 We make decisions about how we interact with people.  We decide how we're going to react in a situation.  We decide what we're going to say.  We decide what we're going to do.  Those decisions we make in every situation in our life is ours to make.  We are (or should be) in complete control.   But we can't control what other people do.  We can't control what other people say.  We can't control the behavior of other people. And I know what you're thinking--well thank you very much Captain Obvious! These things are obvious, yet we spend so much time complaining about what other people say and do, and making excuses for how we've reacted to them.  Too often we read motives into other people's actions that may or may not actually be there, and when we do that it escalates issues because it skews our perception of what's actually going on.  ...

"Love covers a multitude of sins."  ~1 Peter 4:8 We have a choice when it comes to how we interact with other people.  We can either look for their faults, or we can look for their strengths.  We can either dig dirt, or search for gold. It's always been an adage that the first impression is the most important.  I've learned from experience that's not necessarily true.  Too often we make snap judgements about people the minute we meet them, and it's not THEM that made the bad impression it was YOU that made a quick judgement.  It takes time and effort to get to know somebody well.  Some of the best friends I have in my life were people that when I first met them, I wasn't overly fond of.  Over time, I discovered my first impression of that person was completely wrong.  Try to see people the way the Lord sees them.  Get over that "I'm a good judge of character" thing I hear so often.  Give people a chance. Be generous.  Be kind. ...

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." ~Luke 6:36 (CSB) One of the hardest things in life is forgiving.  When we are hurt.  When we are treated poorly.  When we feel like we've been cheated.  Man, is it hard to get over those feelings.   We're not called on to be doormats.  We aren't expected to let people treat us badly over and over again.  We're not called on to let the same crook cheat us over and over again.  Or to let the same liar mislead us time and again.  But we aren't built to carry unforgiveness with us either.  We need to learn the lesson, and let it go. There's a saying "live and learn."  Life is a learning experience, and we learn through successes, and we learn through failure--and believe me, we learn a lot more sometimes from failures than successes.  Some of the hardest lessons we learn are about people.  People ...