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When You Are Dealing With, Or Being, One Of "Those" People


Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2)

          We all have them, those people whom we find it difficult to be around, let alone love. They're boring. They're pushy. They're so needy they suck the life right out of you. They think they're great, or rich, or beautiful, or cool, or intelligent, or.... For you, they are high maintenance people. Today's passage doesn't tell us to enjoy these people. It tells us something much harder. In fact, what it tells us is so hard that it would probably be easier to find something about these people that you can enjoy. We are to be completely humble - not just somewhat, and completely gentle. We're to be patient. We're to bear with one another with love even if we don't like being around them. If our bearing with is grudging, it's not humble, and may not be gentle or patient. Certainly it's not loving. In fact, Jesus told His disciples to go two miles when commanded to go one.
       There is an simple difficult path to being humble, and patient and bearing with one another in love. Step One: Pray that you will be a blessing to those you encounter. Step Two: Obey. Step Three: Return to step one. At some point, we all need to use this with  everyone we meet.
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