To Roll with the Punches..

Good friends are hard to find and one thing I have learned the hard way more than once is when those who call you "friend" are not truly really your friend. For me and the words I know in scripture," A friend loveth at all times." It's easy for me to be in the flesh and want to "spat off" but it's another to hold my tongue as scriptures say and to pray for my "enemies". The word enemy is a harsh word but I guess the ananym(spelling?) for friend is just that (more or less). I do my best to "Do to others as Iwould have them do to me."(Luke 6:31). I know we all fall short, meaning we all make mistakes, but I've never been able to swallow someone not liking me. Call me a people pleaser, I guess in a way I am but it still is tough for me to swallow when a person is not nice to me or chooses to be nice to me when it works for them. Patsy Clairmont says it best in her book "I Second That Emotion", one I would reccommend, by saying, "I mean, really, don't some folks just jitterbug all over your last nerve? They're so good at it that it makes one wonder if it's their gift."(chapter 1 pg. 2). I would have to agree with Patsy on that one. I know a few people I encounter at times that I can without a doubt say, it must be their "gift". In a way it saddens me to think that someone would pour so much energy into making another persons moment/day/life more difficult and at times rather miserable. Nonetheless, as a Christian, I am called to show the love of Christ to others even when it seems impossible and rather draining to even try. Although it seems ludicrous at times to be nice to someone who is so rude back to me, I pray that through my frustrations and inner flesh of defeat that I would somehow rise above the spite and instead bow the knee to someone much greater than anything I could ever say or do, so for me when times get tough and someone wants to hurt me with their actions and/or word, my prayer is that I would hide behind the cross and hold on so that bitterness, anger and vengence would not shine forth but my Heavenly Father through his son, Jesus Christ.Amen.