Yesterday the two sermons on Sunday morning and evening really pulled on my heart strings. For the past several months since beginning my new job I have struggled to keep a positive attitude in a negative atmosphere. I work with 4 other tailors at my job. Two of which are older ladies with complaining spirits. Every morning on my 45 minute drive into work I try to focus my mind on keeping my attitude Christ like for the day. When I arrive I am refreshed and ready to conquer my day. Some days I am strong and I don't let things get to me, but other days I am quiet and withdrawn out of fear of saying something rude.
One lady is constantly telling me how tired she feels. She is tired if she talks too much, tired if she has to do too many fittings and always complaining that her work load is too heavy. Even when I wake up feeling good a couple hours after listening to how bad she feels starts to bring me down.
The other lady is more direct at putting me down. She tells me I didn't refill the iron with water, I left her machine messy, if something is a re-do on an alteration she always says I did it. When I first started working with her I was in complete shock at how hurtful her words were. Now I am used to the harsh words and her attitude of blaming others, but it still strongly effects me daily.
I say all of this to preface why have been studying the words peace and patience, two of the fruits of the spirit. In Galatians 5:22-24 it says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy ,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." I feel as though it is not a coincidence that the words peace and patience are side by side. You must possess one to have the other. If you have peace in your life you will have more patience with people. If you are patient with people you will have more peace in your life.
Our Sunday morning sermon was presented by one of our elders. The title of the lesson was happiness. O boy, do I want to be happy and so do most people in this world. He said, as Christians we should be the happiest people on this earth. Man, that statement really hit me. A lot of days I let more co-workers extreme unhappiness steal my happiness. I want to shine my light before others, so that they may see my good works and give glory to God (Matthew 5:16). How can I be an example to my co-workers if my attitude is just as negative as theirs. He told us to practice an "Attitude of Gratitude." To write down one thing that makes you happy every night before you go to bed. What a great idea to train your brain to think about happy things. Proverbs 17:22, "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." He also said the less we talk about the negative the less they become important. I want to be an encouraging person. I want others to draw to me to feel relief from the stresses that this life causes.
It is tempting when someone puts you down to fire back at them with hurtful words. Here is where the word patience comes into play. I am constantly praying for patience and the words from Psalm 37:7-8,11 strongly speak to me right now. "Be still before the Lord and wait
Patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in
abundant peace." Wow, I found this verse this morning and it has the two words that have been running through my mind peace and patience. My human nature has wanted to be mean and not friendly to those who have hurt me with harsh words. But my God tells me differently. He tells me too be patient and to wait on him. He will give me the peace I need. I can not show Christ to others if I look just like everyone else in this world. By being a peacemaker in a stressful situation I think is a great way to look very different from people of this world.
Our evening lesson did not go hand and hand with the morning happiness lesson, but it spoke perfectly to my current situation. His lesson was on the apostle Andrew. There are only 13 scriptures that mention Andrew and he is not know as one of the "great" apostles, he was just an ordinary person. In John 1:40-41 we see he brought his brother Peter to Jesus and Peter did many great things, but Andrew was the one who brought him to Jesus. Also in John 6:8-9 Andrew was the one who brought the boy with the fish and bread to feed the 5,000 to Jesus. The point of his lesson was you don't have to be able to preach like Peter or Paul to bring people to Jesus. He said our desire as Christians should be to bring others to Christ. The biggest thing that hit me from his lesson was this statement he made, "We might be someones only connection to meeting Christ." Woah, Woah, Woah that is very scary to me. How many people have I come in contact with that God put in my path specifically so I could share him with them. I fail too often at speaking up and telling people about what is most important, my Lord. Why this lesson spoke to me and my situation right now is I feel I truly might be some people I know right nows only connection to Christ.
So my prayer is to continue to seek peace versus anger. To be a happy person and to practice gratitude. Most importantly to be fearless in telling others around me of the peace and freedom I receive daily by walking through life with Jesus.
