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Sunday, December 9, 2018

REACTING OR RESPONDING?




"Between Stimulus and Response There Is a Space. In That Space Is Our Power To Choose Our Response." ~Viktor E. Frankl, a concentration camp survivor during the Holocaust.)


Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor E. Frankl
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/viktor_e_frankl_160380
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor E. Frankl
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/viktor_e_frankl_160380
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor E. Frankl
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/viktor_e_frankl_160380
Essential to editing my life, is up grading or deleting some of the patterns that at one time or another were used for survival and belonging.


The trouble is that as time goes on we grow and change.
  Those past patterns may have been useful at one time.


The way I see things may not necessarily be the way things are.  So based on this perspective I find that reacting has been one of my basic problems in life and I need to amp up the responding.
You see reacting is me-centered.  It's easy.  Responding is hard.  It involves empathy, compassion, and insight.  Reacting sets me up to react in a way that does not represent a child of God.


"Reacting is hasty. Reacting is rushed, uncalculated and often done without proper thought. In anger, in fear. It’s misunderstood, misused. It’s impossible to express how you truly feel in a single sentence, or meme..(or emojis). Its even worse if you’re just sharing for the sake of it, especially if it turns out the source matter is false."

"Responding takes time. Time to review & digest the situation, to understand both it and how it affects you. It also allows you to add context to your statements so that others can learn and appreciate the situation, rather than just click a button with a thumbs-up symbol and throw it aside. Let them know why their attention is needed, rather than just demanding it."


  Scripture advocates responding over reacting.
 In fact, the ability to respond is the mark of a wise person.

 Take a look at these examples:

"... take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,"  (James 1:19
 
“Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” (Proverbs 19:11)

“A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.” (Proverbs 11:17)
“Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” (Proverbs 16:32)
“It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.” (Proverbs 20:3)
“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.” (Proverbs 18:2)
"... for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks."  Luke 6:45
 Mr. Schoof likes to get me a poinsettia every year at this time.  As he hands it to me he says, "Happy anniversary, happy birthday, and any other happy occasion that comes to mind."  My first reaction, although silent was, "Salmon color?", "I don't like the color."  "Did they not have other colors?"  I had never noticed this color before.
  My favorite color are the deep maroon, red ones.  Well, I would like to say that outwardly, I responded, however, it took much restraint to overpower those silent reactions.
 I will enjoy this until it is relegated to a spot outside after the season and eventually join all of our other green thumb less failures.
 


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