Listen:
“Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. Love never fails!”
1 Corinthians 13: 7-8 (CEV)
Reflect:
Recently, I have been painfully aware that I have been too busy – both physically and mentally. After me, the first people to suffer the consequences have been my hubby and three kids.
One problem is that when I am overstretched, I am quick tempered and defensive. This week I had a breakthrough moment.
My seven year old was angry with me for no apparent reason. I was stressed and impatient and needing to leave the house for a quick but urgent errand. She was shouting and stomping up the stairs saying some not very nice things about me.
My instinct was to take out my frustration on her and bombard her with impatient, defensive words before leaving the house and driving away – yes, I was going to be unnecessarily mean to my precious little girl! BUT having just worked on active listening at the facilitators training in Geneva, I heard my own nasty words begin and I stopped.
I took a deep breath, put down my car keys, said nothing for a moment and looked beyond her noisy protest to find the actual problem. We didn’t get to the end of the issue before I left, but we did have some calmer words and agreed to talk about it in a few minutes on my return.
It cost me five minutes and left my eldest waiting in the cold at the bus-stop, but she was fine and came home to a calmer house than would have been the case had I left in anger.
This morning, my teenagers and I did a lectio on 1 Corinthians 13:7-8:
“Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. Love never fails!” (CEV)
In this version, supportive jumped out at me.
Prayer of Response:
“Lord forgive me my impatience and teach me to take the time to love and support rather than to defeat and rush on.”
—Submitted by Sylvana Botterill
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