If only…
It’s awesome the array of emotions the Creator has given to each of us. They can lie dormant until a situation arises that causes our response.
Our emotions are neither positive nor negative; it’s HOW we respond – our action and/or reaction. Each of us has the power to CHOOSE how we respond. I firmly believe that I have control as an expression of my will to choose a positive reaction.
For example, I may be angry at a wrong done against me, but my action will not be retaliatory by inflicting verbal abuse or gossip against the guilty party. I choose to not shut down. Instead, I choose to first pause then pray then let the person know about it.
I make attempts to have dialogue and keep the lines of communication open. Then I move on.
Scripture comes to mind: be angry but sin not: let not the sun go down on your wrath (Ephesians 4:26).
NEVER GO TO BED ANGRY. Table it until tempers cool.
This is not always easy but in choosing to do so it becomes a habit or second nature.
For me, there’s no such thing as someone else “made me angry”. No…. I take responsibility for my own action or reaction!
There have been times in my life when family members or friends stopped speaking to me and regardless of what I did, my calls and texts have gone unanswered. I’m not even referring to the times when someone accused me of doing something that was not true and cursed me out from A to Z.
I am referring to those times when communication completely ceased, without warning.
I searched through the annals of my mind to find out what did I do or say to get the silent treatment. No answer, and it still hurts and cuts so deeply. If only he or she would tell me what I did, so I /we can fix it; so I can make it right. So I can say I’m sorry. I did not know that I hurt you. Please forgive me.
There have been many reconciliations. For those, I am so grateful to God who mends broken hearts and relationships and restores the joy.
But there are a few where decades have gone by…. And I feel that it is a precious loss of time, the not knowing. If only he or she would talk to me.
I wonder that in the not-so-distant future, the opportunity to make amends will be no more….
Romans 12:8 tells me that, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”
I do my part, that is my responsibility. Shalom. Peace.