"Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies." --Philippians 4:8-9 (The Message)
Today I looked up another version of the scripture. The Message tends to put things in the most easily understood way. I find that if I read several versions of one scripture, I "get it" better.
Without focusing on the negative too much, this morning, someone could have done something for me very easily instead of making me do it. But it was not done, and I felt pretty annoyed. I wanted to say something to this person. I wanted to nag them for sitting around and not helping me out. But I bit my tongue. Nagging won't help.
I prayed to God asking for words to use to ask for help effectively. I kid you not, in mid sentence of this prayer, God gave me this scripture. It popped right into my head: "Things to praise, not things to curse." I made a mental list of the things that this person did do this morning that were honorable.
I'm not going to lie and say that this cleared my heart of bitterness. I wish it did. But it cleared my mind and reminded me that there isn't all bad in this person.
It was also put on my heart to email them and apologize for being cold due to the resentment. I didn't talk much this morning because I felt so negative. I didn't want to let the animosity leave my head via my mouth. But in doing that, I also became terse and standoffish. I wasn't very pleasant this morning although I wasn't nearly as bad as I used to get.
I'm a work in progress....
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