Humility
It is important not to use force to make anything happen.
But what if I think that something needs to happen?
In that case, I must be patient and trust in God’s timing.
Normally, I will want to bully my way through with willpower.
My will wants to convince, persuade, and manipulate people quickly to “see” my side.
Throughout my life, I have been good at that.
But that is imposing my will onto others, not God’s.
When you are in situations in which you try to force your will, not God’s, on others, remain open to constructive criticism from them.
God will attempt to teach you through them, but you need to be open to hearing His lesson.
If you try to force your will on others, they will retaliate.
Wait for God’s wisdom for what to say and do to handle the situation.
The goal is to not react to anything with anger.
Be humble and open to learn.
Listen to what others say to you.
Uncomfortable moments are times for you to learn, so you don’t have to keep repeating the same behavior.
Instead, be patient, trusting that God will provide your direction or answer.
Accept constructive criticism from others in order to learn.
My own natural reaction to someone who is coming at me offensively is to strike back.
But I should restrain myself and not strike back.
I should bite my tongue and not say what I immediately want to say.
Restraining my instinctive reactions is a victory for me.
When I apologize to others, I should mean it and ask them to explain how I made them feel.
Now I listen and learn.
God is talking to me to teach me through what others say to me.
I need to get my pride and ego out of the way, so I can learn.
I don’t want to keep repeating the same mistakes that have brought me pain over and over again.
God will continue trying to teach me through others if I don’t learn the first time.
God is always guiding me toward teaching me love and forgiveness.
God is always trying to guide me with His wisdom through the mouths of other people, so I can get out of my pain by enabling love and forgiveness in my life.
Lessons are often uncomfortable, but are always caused by my ignorance.
To be teachable, I need to remain humble.
When others are mean to me, I should not give in to my first reaction, which is to fight back.
When others are critical of me or angry at me, my goal is to humbly listen to what they are saying without reacting negatively.
Then I will be able to hear the lesson that God is trying to teach me, so I won’t have to experience the pain in the future.