TODAY IS…

a good day to swallow your pride.

“Pride only breeds quarrels…”  Proverbs 13:10a NIV

We have all been there. We have all faced the brick wall of stubbornness – ours, or that of a loved one, friend, or business associate.

We have all said, “I did nothing wrong. If anyone needs to take the first step it is her (or him).”

Sometimes many of us may feel that we are always the ones to apologize or hold out the hand of peace even when we are certain in our minds, and in our hearts, that it is the other person who is wrong and is the one who should apologize.

There are several ways to look at situations such as this and one of them may be that if we closely examined our part in whatever the conflict might be, perhaps we are not as “innocent” as we have convinced ourselves that we are. If we look closely, we might see where we said or did something that technically was right, but we knew (even if we didn’t acknowledge it at the time) would set the other person off.

Perhaps it was not intentional, but retrospect reveals that, in many cases, the point we pushed so hard didn’t really need to be pushed at all.

No matter how we arrived at this impasse, we are here, so now what?

Letting pride get in the way and allowing it to drive a wedge in your relationship – personal or professional – is definitely not the right thing to do. In fact, it is most definitely the wrong thing to do. If we allow pride to prevent us from closing the gap that conflict has created, we are allowing darkness to hold sway over us.

More than likely, if we step back and think about which one makes us feel better – being stubborn and angry, or ignoring our pride and making the conflict disappear – we will decide that swallowing our pride is far less painful than the discomfort we will have to carry in our hearts if we allow the situation to continue.

Do we have to apologize for something we really did not do?

Of course not. But we can be sorry we pushed so hard on an issue we knew was important to the other person. We can just say we are sorry that we have allowed anything to impede the relationship.

Asking God to help out and guide us to the words that will bring peace and healing is a good way to push out the darkness that is the harbinger of pride.

We would all prefer to swallow a succulent piece of fruit or a deliciously tempting piece of chocolate; but sometimes what we must swallow is, simply, our pride.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson