Dealing with Difficult People
by Mother Teresa
by Mother Teresa
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.
If you are successful you will win some false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.
I woke up at 3:00am last night. I lay in bed a long time. Awake. I began to pray and prayed a long time. Then I stopped and after awhile was able to fall sleep. The Lord must have been calling upon me to pray; why else would I wake? I've grown in my prayer life. Ten years ago if I prayed longer than 10 minutes, I fell asleep! Sleeping does not equal prayer. It doesn't even equal contemplative meditation.
Lisa Whelchel says on her Web site, "I believe the Lord calls certain people to tarry and travail in intercessory prayer. If you feel like the Lord has gifted you in this area, would you consider adding me to your prayer list?"
The words tarry and travail have never entered my mind regarding with prayer! But I guess it can be that way if praying isn't your thing. My husband says his mother only needed a reason and she'd be on her knees in an instant! It's a little ironic that in some ways I've turned out like his mom. The other thing about me that is like his mom is I like Cashmere Bouquet bath powder and so did she. She died when he was only 23 so I never met her. I gather she might not have liked me because his folks weren't crazy about gringas. Anyway, when I think of her I feel at home with being prayerful. As in, I'm continuing what she started. I can pray till the cows come home.
I first thought I might have a gift for intercessory prayer when I was 23. My husband and I were dating, then we broke up. We were apart for a month and during that time I prayed fervently for his life to be full of misery. Afterward, he told me what he went through and how miserable he was and I thought I should pray more responsibly. There's a name for this type of prayer. It's called imprecatory prayer. You only find it in the Old Testament. Discussion of imprecatory prayer tends to make people uncomfortable and I've only heard it mentioned once at a Bible study. You hear about prayer of thanksgiving, worship, petition, confession, intercessory, but not imprecatory. But when I was 23 I wasn't a fully practicing Christian then. I was sorta, hmm, floating. Free falling.
Tonight I used my Clairol Shimmerlights. It helped. I'm pleased! Although I'm not seeing the shimmer as the name SHIMMERlights implies, the grey is shined up nicely. I wouldn't use it more than once a month. I don't like the smell of it at all. I'm not in favor of this fragrance. Someone reviewed it and said it reminded her of Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific, but I submit the reviewer was delusional. I say it stinks.
Tomorrow we get our new tires and wheels, early in the morning. Then we'll be on the road for the day. We're going to New Mexico. I know, I've already said that. Hopefully, we really can go.
I leave myself today with one last consideration. From my studies in what the Bible teaches about prayer, this resonates. If we do not answer when God calls to us through his Word, it should not surprise us if he does not answer when we call on him in prayer.
I often come back to it. Or, does He call me back to it.
