You're a great person.

You've dedicated your life to Jesus, you do your quiet times, you contribute & serve the church, and you sacrifice.

Your goal with friends, family & people is to lead them closer to God. You've adopted God's command that it's not about you, but about His Plan.

And if you weren't likeable before, adhering to these new standards simply makes you that much more appealing.

And yet, we all have people (at least ONE person) in our lives where we simply don't look forward to seeing. (I wanted to use the word "cringe" but I don't want to be over-dramatic)(but I do mean CRINGE). We've studied up on love, forgiveness, and how God wants us to take the higher road but, when we try to interact with them...

It's as if, on a molecular level, this "friendship" is just not supposed to work!

I used to be a person who didn't care how many people I've discarded. To me, people were temporary. But this year has been an educational one, and I'd like to say that i've made amends with everyone I seem to have issues with, except one... This one, errrrr... this one makes 'old cecil' come & visit from time to time.

Again, we all have those in our lives, but as disciples... what do we truly do?

Maybe we begin by labeling or categorizing people? "They're just bossy/selfish/rude/phony..." Although it helps us, unfortunately labeling people prevent us from understanding the individual.

Labels prevent us from truly getting to know a person, and finding out who they truly are. Therapists ask a ton of questions at first, so they can begin to understand their patients. They don't want to assume anything.

But we can't do that in personal relationships. Norms & privacy (along with the fact that we may not be trained on what to look for, or worse off, don't have the desire to do so) prevent us from doing this because what's acceptable in a professional setting, becomes nosiness in social ones.

God knows everything about everyone - He sees the "complete picture". And unlike how these people are like puzzles with missing pieces, He has every piece. He truly understands. I thank him because His love & compassion for us is not based on how easy we are to get along with. He loves us despite our difficult\annoying\selfish\psychologically unsound parts. (let's get real) He is the example we need to follow on how to deal\treat others.

Matthw 7:12 tells us The Golden Rule - definitely not easy. This is because human design is to retaliate when we've been hurt. I don't know about you, but I struggle with "justice"...

But "Jesus is Lord" means that we are to rise above what our human nature wants us to do, and living like Jesus.

But by no means does this say that God expects us to allow someone to abuse or beat us, or take our stuff. Rather, He is addressing our human desire to retaliate or seek revenge. We are expected to leave any vengeance to God, who always knows what's best. [Romans 12:19]