Hello,
I have been thinking a lot lately about how easy it is to react…..and
react wrong! We are moving quickly, trying to get in front of the things going
on – and when something interferes we react. It is challenging enough to react
well to items in a vacuum – but our lives are not in a vacuum, they are filled
with other things. Too often our reaction takes into heavy account the things
which are surrounding the event, instead of the event itself. Perhaps parenting
provides a good (or bad!) example here. You are trying to get the house picked
up for guests coming after a long day of work. Your child recklessly runs around
the corner, wipes out on the hardwood floors….this knocks a chair into the
table, which bumps a cup of juice down and all over the floor. The isolated
reaction here should be to see if your kid is ok, remind them to be careful,
and then have them help you clean up the juice. But, since you are tired from
work, and stressed about guests you first explode about not being careful
(insert 5 minute rant that they block out in the first 5 seconds) and tell them
to clean up the juice…then as an
afterthought ask if they are ok. This is the reaction – when we are not
careful, it is no longer about what happened but also everything around what
happened.
We have to pause and take a breath. We must recognize the
start of an over-reaction, and change our course.
Some verses from Proverbs 19 on this topic:
Proverbs 19:2 “Also it is not good for a person to be
without knowledge, and he who hurries his footsteps errs” (NASB)
Proverbs 19:11 “A man’s discretion makes him slow to
anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression.” (NASB)
Proverbs 19:16 “He who keeps the commandment keeps his
soul, but he who is careless of conduct will die.” (NASB)
Proverbs 19:19 “A man of great anger will bear the
penalty, for if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again.” (NASB)
Have a blessed day,
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