Your 3 Keys to keep your peace in an angry society
Well, first you have to find peace in an angry society, in order for you to keep it, right?
Now you have to fight to keep it, right?
Why is everyone angry?
It seems today everyone is angry over something
Seems like everyone is offended over everything.
There used to be a day when we could express our opinions without strife.
Today I have friends with opinions and ideas different from mine. You too?
How about you – how do you feel about people with different opinions?
Do you unfriend them on Facebook?
Do you stop hanging out?
I have never seen anything more divided than America today.
In fact, our politics have become a zoo, ripe with conflict.
Could it be that the people who preach tolerance are the most intolerant?
Sure seems like that to me.
One: What is the Truth?
I am a conservative Christian, two categories that it is politically correct to hate today.
I have friends who are liberal, friends who don’t believe in God, and often both combined.
I chose to relate to them as human beings, and many I consider friends.
We can disagree with friends and still be friends, right.
I used to be good at giving my opinion on everything, because I was always right. LOL
What about you, can you relate?
As I matured as a Christian, I discovered that my opinion didn’t matter, only God’s opinion.
Now that is humbling, right? May even take the wind from your sails.
Today, our youths are being taught that there is no absolute truth.
- Your truth is what you believe.
- We can have different beliefs and different truths.
Today we are allowed to disagree with others, as they are automatically wrong if they don’t share our view of truth.
Tolerance is out the window, right?
OK, what’s the answer?
My answer is the truth is what God says it is, He created the world and all that’s in it.
He created us in his image.
Man, that makes it easy! The only opinion of me that is valid is God’s – makes life easier.
You mean I don’t have to worry about pleasing other people?
Two – Identifying your peace:
Where do you find your peace?
How do you keep your peace?
Do you want my secret?
Here’s a couple of simple ways I found for me to stop getting angry:
- Stop watching the news
- Stop watching politics (unless you are into it for the humor)
- Don’t get baited into Facebook arguments – I used to feel that I had to correct their incorrect views. Now I either avoid it or treat it as a game, well it is easier than jogging.
Do people upset you? Why?
With all these differing and strongly held opinions, getting upset is easy.
Staying peaceful is hard.
Generally we get annoyed with people who
- Pay us too little attention (ignore us)
- Pay us too much attention (try to control us)
We can avoid this annoyance by
- Knowing who we are
- Being comfortable with who we are (doesn’t mean we can’t be improved, though)
- Realizing their opinion of us doesn’t matter, it’s just their opinion.
Three: Our Reactions:
You’ve heard it right?
We can’t control what happens to us, we can only control our reactions to them.
That sounds easy, right.
Well, in the real world, we generally need to count to 10 before responding when someone tries to get our goat.
Mostly, they are not really trying, they just do something that annoys us. Like
- Being cut off in traffic
- Jumping the line ahead of us
- Not observing us at all
Yes, there is such a thing as righteous anger,
but most of the time it is neither right nor righteous.
Rather than the common way of jumping to conclusions over what someone has done or said, we can ask questions like
- Can you repeat that, I don’t think I understood you
- What you did/said made me feel _______, is that what you intended?
- I never thought about it that way. What makes you feel that way about it?
This may nip the problem in the bud, eliminating misunderstandings, or even allow you to better understand a different point of view.
Let’s summarize.
You will be less liable to lose your peace if
- Identify what is truth
- Identifying your peace
- Controlling our reactions
As seniors, we are expected to be more peaceful.
By protecting our peace, we are being a role model to others to remain peaceful as well.
In fact, this world will never see real peace until the Prince of Peace returns.
Wishing you a life of peace and joy.
Blessings
Ron
Ron McLean, the Dream Roper, helping YOU Lasso Your Dreams
text/cell: 864-404-6696
Schedule a call – ronmclean.biz
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