Wednesday; November 2

How hard is it for you to disagree with people? Now, before we move on, notice what I didn’t say. I didn’t ask how you deal with people who disagree with you. How we respond (or react) to people who challenge us is a different topic than our ability to confront people we don’t agree with. The ability to disagree with others is a challenge to many of us. Some of us detest conflict to the point that we never do it. We may not agree with the way someone else thinks or acts, but we never say anything about it because we don’t want to get into an adversarial discussion. There are others who tend to find themselves on the other side of the spectrum. We are so convicted in our beliefs that anyone who disagrees with us receives our wrath. The other person’s obvious foolishness is so blatant (because they don’t think like we do) that they need to be addressed and if they don’t change their mind, they need to be crushed.

I would imagine that most of us find ourselves somewhere in between these two extremes. Some of us tend to be more willing to let things go while others are more apt to confront people. No matter on which side we find ourselves, we must respond appropriately. The Bible challenges, “… but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,” (Ephesians 4:15).

Let’s have the confidence to speak our mind and stand up for what we believe in, but let’s have the discretion to do it in a way that we might actually be able to sway people with our words and our logic. When we do that, all of us can become better.

Think About It!