Every day we are faced with a decision. Will we respond to life’s circumstances according to God’s Word or act emotionally? While our initial temptation is to react emotionally, it’s our decision.
Everything changes except for God. Letting changes in our lives upset us won’t stop them from happening. Circumstances change, people change, our desires change, and our passions change. The only constant in our lives is God -God never changes.
Most of the changes in life without our permission. But if we choose to adapt, we can live in peace. Emotions rise up and then move on, and they seem to want us to follow them.
When we choose to follow God’s Word are not not reacting to the situation, we are able to manage our emotions instead of allowing them to manage us,
How we respond to change, determines whether we transition mentally or emotionally. Do you act on God’s Word or react to the situation?
Patience plays a big role on how we react to change. If you have not developed patience, it tends to bring out the worst in you. My experience is that losing patience doesn’t make the situation faster it only makes me more emotional.
It seems like the more we want something, the more our emotions act up if we don’t get it. Common sense tells us it’s foolish to be in a rage when people do things we think are stupid when we’re driving or other simple things people tend to get upset about, like parking spaces. As we develop patience, we don’t think how hard and frustrating things are, but how peaceful we will be if we don’t just react.
No one likes to deal with difficult people. It’s beneficial to think how difficult you can be when you’re dealing with difficult people. There are a lot of difficult people in the world largely because of the stress we put ourselves under. People are trying to do too much in too little time and have more responsibility that they can handle.
We tend to follow the actions of rude people. But we need to stop and remember the person being rude probably have a lot of problems. And may not even realize how they are acting.
I see people posting rude comments on social media, and sure enough someone has to follow suit and before to long the entire comment section is an emotional rant, over something someone said or did. Being rude seems to be contagious these days. It gets our emotions going, and people end up getting stressed out and angry over simple things.
I certainly remember lots of times in my life when I was too harsh, but thinking back on it, I realize a had a lot going on and felt pressured, so the pressure came through in harsh voice tones. While that didn’t excuse my behavior, it was the root of the problem.
I am thankful that I learned the Word of God and have Him in my life to help and comfort me. But I lot of people don’t have that. I’ve had to work very hard with the Holy Spirit for the ability to act on Gods Word when people are rude, instead of reacting with a behavior that matches or tops others. Instead of joining in the rude reactions of people, I’ve learned to pray for them, asking God to open doors for them to get through.
I’ve had to ask myself on numerous occasions “how do I react to people who are rude?” Do I respond in love as God’s Word says, or do I join them in the behavior. If I’m not on my toes, I tend to respond the same way they respond. Being rude can be contagious if we follow our emotions instead of God’s Word.
Feelings come and go, and we can’t escape them, but we can choose to live by God’s Word and not our feelings. Even when it doesn’t feel right, we can live with peace and joy. When we follow God’s Word in every circumstance we face. We can learn to live beyond our feelings.
“The human body is a city with seven gates – seven portals to the outside world: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and a mouth. It is incumbent upon us to place internal ‘judges’ to discriminate and regulate what should be admitted and what should be kept out.” – Anonymous
From Pity to Praise 