Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. James 1:19
The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius once wrote:
I am going to meet people today who talk too much –
People who are selfish, egotistical, ungrateful.
But I won’t be surprised or disturbed
For I can’t imagine a world without such people.
As people living in a fallen world we are battered by outward circumstances that seem bent on our destruction. It is easy to fall victim to the old diabolical adage that we have no control over what happens to us. So we spend our lives blaming others or basting in self-pity.
God is never happy when we fail to take personal responsibility for our thinking, attitudes and actions. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7 KJV) Through right thinking we can move to godly faith. When we move to godly faith we can begin to squeeze out of life hidden good that life has to offer.
What do you expect to se in your life? Most of us are aware that we get out of life more than we expect when we walk withy God. When we walk against God or treat Him with indifference, what could we expect?
What kind of people are you going to meet today? Will they all be kind and accepting of you? Will they offend you by their rejection? Will you be angered by others actions and reactions?
Maybe we could learn to listen more and talk less. We might be able to control our thoughts better and feel less rejected when people don’t do what we expect. What kind of people do you expect to meet today? Since we don’t always have a choice of what people we might meet in a given day a better question is “How will we respond?”