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| My dear friend Rita visiting on my birthday 2012 |
But I say unto you, Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to those who hate you, and
pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Matthew 5:44
From
the first moment we met, I thought my new supervisor disliked me. Everyone else welcomed me to my new position,
but this person seemed stand-offish, mistrustful, and even jealous. Over the course of that year, we had several
differences of opinion which left me feeling somewhat bruised and devalued.
While I complained one day about this person’s
behavior, my friend interrupted me and asked, “Have you prayed for him?”
Her question definitely caused me pause. I had not prayed for him, but her question
made me realize that I should be doing just that. After all, we need to pray about
everything.
I
began to pray for him in earnest. Each
day I prayed for his mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. I prayed for God to bless him.
And above all these things
put on charity. Colossians 3:14
I
began to see subtle changes in our interactions. Greetings seemed sincere. I noticed he listened and seemed to appreciate what I
shared in our group meetings. The
changes were coming from both of us. By
the end of that year, the relationship had transformed into one of mutual
respect and good-will.
Let brotherly love
continue. Hebrew 13:1
Little brothers Nathan and Jonah at play
I welcome you to leave your comments below. Thank you so much for visiting Write Moments with God. May God bless you and cover you with His love.
Dear Rose, thank for this reminder of calling upon
ReplyDeleteprayer. It truly is our lifeline to God. Matters as you described to the smallest of needs.Thank you for your blog.Your writings are always good food for this soul of mine. I think the biggest change is in ourselves when we employ prayer.Thank you, thank you Rose.
Mary, it's so nice to see you here. I just need to remember to PRAY sooner than later. Blessings to you. I appreciate your encouragement.
DeleteThat is such a wonderful example. I had a similar thing happen to me. As you know, we are foreigners here, and mostly, our experiences have been good. One lady, though, seemed to resent me each time I came in her little store. I continued to smile and greet her each time I entered, say "good-bye" each time I left (common courtesy here in Spain), and chit-chat a little bit each time I visited. At first, she was like an ice box. Then, she began to talk to me warmly each time I went in--until another customer came in. Then, she'd immediately treat me coldly again. Finally, we got to be such good friends that she shared things about her family with me, accepted gospel tracts from me, and treated me nicely even in front of others. It took years of prayer and smiles, but it worked. A similar thing has happened recently with my neighbors. . . after fifteen years! All of that to see the Bible's principles work. And, it's such a blessing to watch it happen. :o) Thanks for sharing! God bless you, Rose.
ReplyDeleteYou are patient...love is.
DeleteHi Rose,
ReplyDeleteI think this is one of the hardest things to do. Sometimes our negative thoughts about a person who dislikes us or we are having trouble relating to only feeds the negativity. Just changing our way of thinking and like you said, praying for the person has wondrous results. If it doesn't change the other person, it changes the way we perceive the situation. We never know what the other person is going through. Thanks for this post today!
Eileen
Thank you Eileen for sharing your thoughts. You are so right that we never know what is going on with someone. If we did know our perspective might be different. Prayer changes things, and it changes me too. Just put it all in God's hands.
Delete