HomeFaithYou’re Not My Friend Anymore! (and) Family Worship #8

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You’re Not My Friend Anymore! (and) Family Worship #8 — 6 Comments

  1. Definitely good thoughts about dealing with challenging people and situations. I agree that you shouldn’t put things into writing – often we do that when we’re in the heat of the moment, and it’s hard to undo it when you’re thinking more clearly. I’ve never thought about keeping a picture of a challenging person handy to help deal with the situation. It’s a very interesting solution – I’d probably prefer not to see them, but this forces you to face the issue – I guess that’s a more mature response!
    Great post!
    AB

    • That photo trick is one that I picked up along the way from a guy who has had lots of life experience. He is probably the calmest, most even-tempered guy I know. One day I was visiting with him and noticed a photo of a person who wasn’t a family member of his. That’s when he told me that he put that photo with his family so he would think positive things about this person he was having challenges with, along with all the good memories of family.

  2. I’ll have to think about the no written reply part. Even now I am giving a written reply. Here I can be more exact, weigh my words more closely (if I so choose), revise, delete, substitute, add to, etc. In “live” conversation I, personally, would have a tendency, I think, to mis-speak/ not be as clear, etc. I do think there is merit in not responding to such letters/emails without waiting and revising, if necessary, and looking at the situation with the distance of time before replying. Reasonable ?

    • That’s fair Ted. I haven’t been able to perfect the art of measuring my written words as carefully as some people do. For me, it works best just to talk it out. I think too often with the written electronic messaging that people sit and ‘stew’ in their anger if there are issues at hand. But, everyone will have their own way of doing things. My wife just pokes me in the ribs when she is mad at me.