Daily Huddle - Tue Aug 20, 2019 Unoffendable

Love you all, praying for you!
 
Yesterday someone mentioned counsel they received from my daughter.  Her desire is to be un-offendable.  Is that your desire?  Are you willing to be unoffendable?  Are you willing to choose to be unoffendable?  Have you ever gotten into an argument with your husband, or your wife - or someone close to you, a family member or a friend?  Have you ever gone back to apologize for something, only to get into another argument?  Why is that?  Sometimes when apologies end in another argument – it’s because we want to be heard, more than we want to understand.  I want you to hear my viewpoint – what I think, and how that made me feel, more than I want to understand your viewpoint, what you think, and how that made you feel. 
 
Have you ever noticed that arguments in marriage or family so often happen just before you are about to go to church or go and do something to help or serve others?  It’s like arguments come out of nowhere!  It’s what the devil does – he tries to steal, kill, and destroy.  Marriage is the greatest earthly blessing God has given.  The most important human relationship there is.  God ordained marriage to reflect His image, He is the one who defines it.  That’s why the devil attacks it so much.  Family is the second greatest gift God has given.  He puts us in families,  close relationships - the people that know you the most – the good, the bad, and the ugly.   Have you noticed how easy it is to be offended by things people say or do?  It certainly feels like they were doing it to you!  How rude, how inconsiderate!  I can’t believe they did that!  Proverbs 19:11 - A person’s wisdom gives them patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.   What if you were unoffendable?  How would that change your life?  What mental energy, negative emotion, and misplaced effort would that save you?  How would that impact your day – if you didn’t waste any time being offended by someone - something they said or did?  Most of the time they don’t even realize it.  They’re going about their day, and you’re stuck in the toilet of offense.  What could you do instead with your time and emotions?  What would that do for your marriage, or your family?  What if you just decided that you would believe the best in others, that you would always assume the best and not the worst?  What if you asked the Holy Spirit – to help you be unoffendable - to listen, and ask them to clarify, rather than interrupt and talk.  What would that bring to your relationships – and your life?  How many conflicts might that avoid.  And what could God do instead with your mental and emotional effort – no longer consumed with offense? 
 
Have you ever asked yourself - what could offend you today?  Have you ever even thought about that?  What could get you to choose to be offended.  The way someone drives their car?  Something someone might say, a look, a slight, a thoughtless word or action?  What if – in the moment you are presented with that opportunity to be offended - you thought of a time - when you did the exact same thing.  You have, we just don’t think of those times, we think of what others do to us.   What if you loved that person – despite what they did?  Because God loves them.  What if you realized that what they did, may be a result of some deeper things they are going through? Burdens that you don’t even know… What if you chose to pray for them, and bless them, rather than be offended by them?   Try something today.  Talk to your best friend and share the three things that you could most easily choose to be offended by – and tell them that you’ve decided not to take offense – to be unoffendable today - to pray for them instead.    Ask them the three things that might most easily offend them - and pray for each other – that God would teach you how to be un-offendable; that every opportunity to take offense – God would turn it into an opportunity to love and pray for them.  (I’m not talking about telling them – "Hey you’re offensive, let me pray for you."  No, just praying yourself - for hurting people that need God’s help.  Not only will it bless them – it will absolutely change you!
 
Love you all,
dad