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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Relationships With Others


Everyone in this life wants to be loved, treasured and accepted by the people around them, for the most part. Not too many people that you or I know go around hoping that everyone that they see or meet dislikes them. It is part of human nature, the longing to be loved and accepted. Going into high school I made it a goal to just be nice to everyone and not have anyone dislike me or start rumors about me, you know, that sort of thing. I just wanted to be known as the happy guy that didn’t dislike anyone and that was not disliked by anyone else. I quickly came to realize that you can’t do it. No matter where you are, in work, school, or any public place there is no way that you can have one hundred percent of the people like you. People are always going to have their opinions and their own way that they view you and you can do nothing to change that. Sounds kind of scary, huh? I got really close, to about ninety eight percent or so, but no matter what I did I could never get the last two percent to change their minds. I tell you all of this to say that no matter what you do in life you are always going to have people that don’t like you and won’t accept you for who you are. Most of the time though, we get so caught up in wanting a relationship with that person, or wanting that person to like us and accept us so much that we forget a key fact in life. The only persons thoughts, feelings, emotions, and attitude that you can control is your own, and no one else’s. You cannot make someone like you, or accept you by force. They have to have a change in attitude or feeling. I mean, look at the life of Jesus. He wasn’t accepted by all or like by all. The Pharisees were always trying to kill him, and countless others saw him as a fool and a fake. So after saying all of this here is my challenge: Check your own heart, and your own mind and thoughts. If you think someone is holding a grudge against you check your own heart. Are you holding a grudge against them? Is there a thought in you that is unkind towards them? Remember, how are you going to take the speck out of your brother’s eye if you have a plank in your own eye. Relationships as human beings are important to us and God, so strive to make sure you don’t have a plank in your own eye, so that you can carefully and skillfully take the speck out of the eye of your brother.   

3 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas! May God Bless You.

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  2. Merry Christmas to you too. I pray that you will have a wonderful Christmas and that you will not forget the true meaning and spirit.

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  3. A wonderful reminder and something that I have been trying to work on. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be liked and sometimes I get so caught up in that wish that I forget to love others the way that I should. Thank you for sharing this!

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