Yesterday, I was in the all day affair that I was flown up here for when I was asked my opinion about a direction or standard. I replied with the acutal directional statement. Its one that I believe in, but its still early in development. A few minutes after this one of my coworkers in the room, responded provided her thoughts on this standards, and ripping it to shreds with a lot of emotion and frustration.
As she was going through her “rant”, I dropped in to a dream sequence. I saw myself. I thought of the way I had handle situations like this in the past. I thought about my response to her at this moment, which deep in side was probably a kin to reaching across the table and doing bodily harm! However, I also thought about wy I would want to do that, the value, the message, and how I could use this to show the transformation that I strive for everyday, and then as she finished up I thought about Colossians 3:7
7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
The comments were quickly deferred to a a more appropriate setting to address by another co worker, who beat me to the punch at saying that, and the meeting moved on. However, her frustration with the direction continued the rest of the day. And so, I continued to think about how to address this, and I realized that my job was not to defend myself, and to prove that I was correct. It’s not about me. My job is to make her better. And that is what I will strive to do.
What about you, what about your conflicts. Who is it about?
12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Col 3 (NIV)
