Satan plants lies in our soul throughout the
experiences of our life. These misconceptions cause us to over-react
irrationally and with intense emotion in our current life situations.
There are personality issues and woundedness in
every person’s soul, which may trigger our wounds and hinder us, or our
partner, friend or relative from changing or growing spiritually.
We need to see life through their eyes, not only through
our own. God will give us His agape love to accept them for exactly who they
are. Then we can also pray for them to be all that God wants them to be.
If we put their needs above our own, He gives us
the patience to love them through their episodes. We realize that they are
reacting from fear and woundedness, which our behavior triggered; and we do not
take their rage or sullenness or impatience personally.
We pray for them and love them even more when they
are behaving badly than we do when they are rational and kind. They have no
idea why they are acting this way, but God does.
All negative behavior is a red flag to alert us of
the woundedness in our soul. It may also be a false belief that is now an idol
in our soul, because we give our pet peeves and misconceptions too much
importance in our life.
We can take these irrational beliefs to God and
gain His perspective on them, asking Him to change our focus about them until
they lose their importance to us.
During rational moments, when no one is in a hurry
or in need of our time, we can offer to pray with our spouse, friend or family
member about their negative emotions.
They may be as clueless about their behavior as we
are. They can start by journaling what they were thinking during their
outburst. What thoughts were going through their mind? What did we do that
triggered this reaction in them?
As we pray together, these problems are resolved as
God reveals their root and origin, uncovers Satan's lie for us, and then
speaks His truth to our soul. ( www.theophostic.com )
Prayer:
Father God, remind us that our soul longs more for
a relationship with You than with a person. We often go from one person to
another in this life, trying to find our soul mate, or someone to complete us.
Yet, the only way we can feel fulfilled is through
deepening our commitment and our relationship with You. This is true even for
married people. The more we find acceptance and develop satisfaction in our
relationship with You, the more we can serve our mate out of our love for You
(Ephesians 5:22, 6:7; Colossians 3:18, 23-24).
Thought for the Day:
Our support and acceptance of our partner’s,
friend's or relative's shortcomings will do much to improve our attitude, as
well as to improve their behavior through our love and consideration of their
needs above our own.
