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 ...

 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. ~Psalm 32:8 NKJV There are times in our life when we may feel like we're out of sync.  Where we're out of step.  We feel like maybe we missed something.  We get this nagging feeling that maybe we missed a turn somewhere behind us.  We just know that something isn't quite right in our life.  Things aren't exactly as they should be.  Somewhere, we've gotten out of step with God. I heard a pastor called this "spiritual discontent" once.  I thought that was a pretty good term.  I've felt that a few times myself.  And usually it's because I AM out of step with God.  I'm either doing something I know isn't quite right.  Or I've made a decision about something that's got more to do with what I want to do, than what God's plan is for me. We let all kinds of things get between us, and the good things that God has planned for us.  Too often we...

"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy;  without holiness no one will see the Lord." ~Hebrews 12:14 Part of the human experience is dealing with difficult people.  Everyone at one point or another is going to deal with somebody that wants to steal our peace.  Who wants to cause a fuss.  Who is constantly offended.  Who is looking for a reason to be difficult with you. Our natural inclination is to push back.  If they want a problem, then I'll give them one!  It may feel good to give a foolish person a piece of our mind from time to time, but we actually become the fool when we do that. Arguing and fighting and bickering is not what Christians are called on to do.  We're called on to live in peace.  We're called on to show love for our enemies.  We're called on to be an example to others. That doesn't mean the person yanking our chain isn't going to continue yanking on our chain.  It doesn't mean our detract...

"Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strives to do what is good for each other and for everyone else." 1 Thessalonians 5:15  We are all going to encounter people in our life that aren’t going to like us. They aren’t going to appreciate us for who we are, and they aren’t going to see the good things in us. We’re going to encounter people that think differently than we do. We are going to meet people in our life that don’t have our best intentions at heart. You’re going to have people that are critical of you because you haven’t lived up to what their expectation is. You’ll even have people come to dislike you because they’ve asked your opinion about something, and you told them what you thought rather than what they wanted to hear. God made no two of us the same, and none of us perfect.  So you’re going to find the potential for conflict everywhere—at work, at the grocery store, on social media, in church, and possibly even in your own f...

Have you ever seen so much virtue signaling as we have today? You see it on social media. You see it on t-shirts. You see it on the bumpers of people's cars. People proudly announcing they are against hate.  They are against racism.  They are against oppression.  They are against censorship.  It gets a little silly sometimes, because I'm not always clear who they think are FOR any of these things they are so loudly and proudly against. In the end, words don't matter very much--it's actions that matter. Words are easy things. How you live your life should reflect your values.  It's how you treat other people that shows the kind of person you are. It's how you react and interact in the world that demonstrates what you're about. It's about listening to other people. It's about learning from one another. It's about showing compassion to our fellow man.  It's about being kind. It's about being forgiving. It's about being prayerful and grat...