"Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins." Proverbs 10:12
There are always lots of things that can cause strife. If you are looking for them, you can be irritated by a ton of stuff. Actually, you can have a fight, complain, find trouble just about anywhere, anytime.
There are always wonderful things to enjoy and give ones attention to. Always opportunities to love and bring life into whatever situation we find ourselves in.
One of the key skills to being able to be a blessing in any given situation is the ability to "cover" or "overlook" the negatives and the things that are wrong or irritating.
Obviously there is a time to address issues that need to be addressed and sometimes this causes conflict that is necessary. BUT...most of the time, the challenge is not to find the wrong in a situation. The challenge is to overlook (dare I suggest as the BIBLE does that we even "cover" it?) the wrong in order to see the great things that are available and there as well.
One of the key skills that I have been working on is the skill of "reframing." That is, in any given situation that I find myself having a negative attitude or focus on the frustrations or feeling of animosity and argumentative strife...here is what I attempt to do (not always successfully). I try to "reframe" the situation in my mind and heart.
I ask myself, "how else can I look at this situation?"
"How does God view this?"
"How would a wise person I know view it? (sometimes thinking of different people depending on the situation.)
"What views could I take that would help me be a blessing and life-giving in this situation?"
If we get good a reframing, and do it enough, we can change some of our natural inclinations toward negativity and strife and that would just be awesome!
So, if you are vehemently disagreeing with something in this blog. Try it out. Reframe. What can you overlook? What is good in it?
Enjoy. :)
There are always lots of things that can cause strife. If you are looking for them, you can be irritated by a ton of stuff. Actually, you can have a fight, complain, find trouble just about anywhere, anytime.
There are always wonderful things to enjoy and give ones attention to. Always opportunities to love and bring life into whatever situation we find ourselves in.
One of the key skills to being able to be a blessing in any given situation is the ability to "cover" or "overlook" the negatives and the things that are wrong or irritating.
Obviously there is a time to address issues that need to be addressed and sometimes this causes conflict that is necessary. BUT...most of the time, the challenge is not to find the wrong in a situation. The challenge is to overlook (dare I suggest as the BIBLE does that we even "cover" it?) the wrong in order to see the great things that are available and there as well.
One of the key skills that I have been working on is the skill of "reframing." That is, in any given situation that I find myself having a negative attitude or focus on the frustrations or feeling of animosity and argumentative strife...here is what I attempt to do (not always successfully). I try to "reframe" the situation in my mind and heart.
I ask myself, "how else can I look at this situation?"
"How does God view this?"
"How would a wise person I know view it? (sometimes thinking of different people depending on the situation.)
"What views could I take that would help me be a blessing and life-giving in this situation?"
If we get good a reframing, and do it enough, we can change some of our natural inclinations toward negativity and strife and that would just be awesome!
So, if you are vehemently disagreeing with something in this blog. Try it out. Reframe. What can you overlook? What is good in it?
Enjoy. :)
