How to Disagree and Still Love One Another

Oh Joyce. There is a lot to talk about in the world today, a lot going on and especially a lot of people disagreeing so I would love to talk about how can we disagree and still love one another do it the way that God wants us to. Well if you’d love to talk about it you go ahead and talk about it and I’ll listen what if I disagree. Oh ginger you know the world is a mess right now, it’s just like there’s so many angry people and murmuring and complaining and it’s just it’s just pitiful. You know I heard my husband say this morning the earth is definitely groaning as we wait for the return of christ and in romans 12 it says as far as you’re concerned, live at peace with all people and all we can do is our part. You know Dave and I learned many years ago were so different, they are so different, we had to learn how to disagree agreeably how to realize that each person has a right to their own opinion which is a really important point. It is I mean every person, you know I have a right to think what I want to think unless it’s evil or wicked, you know and you have a right to like or dislike what you want to and I should never be disrespectful towards somebody because they don’t think like I do or like what I like, you know and that’s a good place to start because so often we think, how could you like that? Yeah, I mean how can you think that way? How could you possibly think that? Or you know, you’ll see people dressed a certain way and, and think really, what did you think when you put that on? And the thing is, is so much, is just none of our business. It would just, we would have so much more peace if we would mind our own business. And uh, I remember a situation where Dave and I, we had a single man that lived next door to us and he lived in this big house by himself and David, I didn’t even know the guy’s name, but we started talking one day about why does he want to live in a big house like that all by himself. That doesn’t even make any sense. There’s no telling you. And then all of a sudden I realized here we are planning this guy’s financial future because we’re like, Dave said, well maybe he’s investing money in the house and I said, but he could invest it somewhere else. And so we don’t even know this guy and we’re deciding how he should spend his money and that’s the way we are. You know, we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to and we always think that we’re right. And so something that really helped Dave and I is to get to the part where we’ll say, I think I’m right, but I could be wrong, I could possibly be wrong now that takes some growth even to be able to say that at times I couldn’t, we’re not we’re not even getting around to saying I am wrong, that’s a big step because that really hurts. But just to say I think I’m right, but I could be wrong because have you ever had a time where you just I mean you were so sure that you were right and you turned out to be wrong? I have and I don’t like it. Yeah, but it happens and it is an eye opener. It happens and it happens more frequently than I would like for it to. I think if you want to get along with people you have to really be committed two piece. Mhm Jesus said my peace, I leave with you not as the world gives do I give unto you, but my own special piece I give and bequeath unto you and peace is very, very important because all this other stuff the anger, the unforgiveness, the judgment, the criticism, sticking your nose in other people’s business. Those are all things that God tells us not to do. So I have a feeling that if we all followed the word, we could get along a whole lot better, especially like you said if we’ve protected that piece as much as I could and I peace is very important to me now. I grew up in a house of turmoil and arguing and fighting and anger and then I spent the next number of years doing that myself, because that was the only way that I knew how to live and once I really got committed to peace, you know, like I don’t always have to have the last word, you know, that sometimes I just need to put it plainly shut up, you know? Well, because you can tell when you’re talking to somebody, you can tell when a conversation is escalating into a level that’s not gonna be good because people start getting louder and louder and why not just stop it before. I mean, sometimes I’m like, I mean, I can tell in the very beginning of something now if Dave disagrees with me and 99% of the time I’m not going to talk him out of his opinion. And so I’ve just come, I’ll think, well, I don’t always say it, but I think he has a right to his opinion, I have a right to mine and sometimes just getting out of the room for a few minutes. Yeah, For me, there’s there’s a competition thing. So I have to remember, I don’t have to win this, you know, being able to lay that down, sometimes it’s not easy, but but it it does make a difference if I if I can tell myself that and and let it go, I think we better all get committed two piece because really I mean, like the bible says, don’t let the sun go down on your anger, don’t give the enemy a foothold in your life. So it plainly says there and other places in the bible that if we hold on to anger, it does open a door for the enemy. And I believe that if you don’t have any piece, you don’t have any power. You know, we want power with God. We want our lives to be powerful. We want the things that we do to matter. We want our words to be powerful and we have to keep all this junk out of our lives and it is our responsibility, I can’t say. And this is the way I used to be. Well if you didn’t act that way, I could be at peace, well I had to start taking responsibility for my own peace and not expect everybody else to keep me peaceful. Yeah, that’s really good. There are so many strong opinions in the world right now and people are very passionate for good reasons about what they believe. But if you go back to that Romans 12 verse it it has two parts to it. It’s you know, as much as you are able and it’s be at peace with all men and the one seems impossible. Um, but when you add in the first part, it does exactly what you’re saying about that personal responsibility and coming to the point where I’m doing what I can and um I have to let God take care of some of the rest. Is that the best way to excite. I believe that. I mean I I believe this so strongly if I do what’s right, no matter what somebody else is doing, if I do what to write what God wants me to do, then God will take care of it. one way or the other. God will take care of it. And we really, even as far as like your health and protecting yourself for the future, slowing down the aging process, all the stress in the world right now. I mean a full day of worry And especially anger is probably equivalent to 40 hours of hard labor. I mean it takes a toll on you, especially in your soul. And jesus said, you know all you that labor and are heavy laden overburdened. The amplified bible says come to me and I will give you rest for your souls. He did, he didn’t say your body, you know, you can lay down in the bed and rest your body, you can go on vacation, lay on a beach. But if you think about everybody you hate and everybody that you’re mad at and all the things everybody is doing to you and worry about all your problems. I mean you’d be better off to stay at work and hopefully keep your mind off of that stuff because it’s all this internal stuff so true that does us damage love. When we talk about loving other people, it’s so important. I mean, it’s the high call on our life and God is love. It’s not just something he does. It’s who he is and he loves us and he loves us unconditionally. But love is not a feeling. It’s it’s not the kind of romantic love we feel when were dating somebody or married to somebody or not even the kind of love you feel for your Children. Love is a decision about how you’re gonna treat people. And a decision about how you’re gonna talk about people. So the bible says, bless your enemies and do not curse them. And if you study that in the original language to bless means to speak well of and the curse means to speak evil of. And so that’s very practical. I love that. It’s very clear house, what are you going to do? And how hard is it when somebody’s hurt you or you’re mad at them and somebody else comes along. It starts talking about what a great person they are. It is almost impossible because the first thing you think of, well, it’s, you know, Yeah, and sometimes just our body language. And so then the person will say why what’s what’s wrong, what you know, and which is why we do it, we don’t know the flesh is just, it’s so loves to gossip and to be the first one to tell something. And so I I am committed to living in peace. And I had one when I when God 1st really dealt with me about maintaining peace in my life, I had to start by paying attention to the things that stole my piece. That’s good. Yeah. Because realizing what they are, because I didn’t even really realize all the things that got me upset. And so this is just one example. If I have to hurry, I mean I can hurry a little bit, but if I if I have to hurry to the point where I feel pressured, almost always, I’m gonna end up losing my piece, probably getting angry at somebody who’s not even doing anything and very definitely saying things that I don’t need to say. So therefore I can fix that whole problem by just leaving myself ample time to do things and not putting myself in a position where I’m going to get mad at everybody else now, because my world is not moving fast enough. Right? Right. Well, those are some great suggestions. And I think some very, very practical things because we are going to face opinions that are different than ours and we are going to have people who are willing to work with us on it because they love us and others who just are not and they’re not gonna like it whatever we do whatever we say. So, we need to be able to handle both those situations and loving as a decision rather than a feeling is huge and be very generous in the words. I’m sorry, that’s good. Those two words can save so much trouble in the world if I hurt your feelings, I’m sorry I was out of line when I did that. Please forgive me. Let’s start taking responsibility instead of blaming everybody else for our unhappiness. How old are you? Good talk. Thank you.