conflict...the 8 letter 4 letter word
what is it about the word conflict that cause to people to run screaming in the other direction? almost from childhood we are taught to place nice and share and don't fight with your sibling or friend. Is that always a good philosophy? I am not saying we should fight from age 2 til death. But does place nice really help us as an adult when we disagree with someone or something? or a legitimate disagreement arises and we are afraid that someone will stop being our friend. we are taught to ignore and hold back those feelings of displeasure. heaven forbid we disagree with someone else's opinions or actions. Doesn't avoiding conflict makes us also want to avoid the person? those are the people that we talk about or tell others not to like. Is that why we often rush to tell a third party so they will agree with us should something else happen? we can't tell the other person how we feel or they may not like us anymore (yes i know that is my fear.). unfortunately that also means we stop trusting that person. next time we have something to share or want to rejoice we pause because we remember the conflict and how is was never resolved. you are still bitter so of course they are.however that is a slippery slope...chances are they don't even know that you are having a problem with them. What are the steps to truly resolving a conflict in a Christ-like manner. How did he handle conflict? Judas he told to stop complaining. Jesus even told him that he knew Judas was set to betray him. When he entered the temple and tosses all the tables over was that a conflict? Is that how we are suppose to act when someone breaks our "toys" or hurts our feelings. When his disciples complained about him talking with the Samaritan woman, he sat them down, told them why he did it, and said stop complaining. He hugged the little children more and told the disciples to once again stop complaining. How did Jesus confront conflict? are we suppose to just play nice or do we resolve the problem as fast as possible?
Once again I always seem to have more questions then answers.
posted by deanna @ 6:22 PM
2 Comments:
Good questions. The only answers I have are dripping with sarcasm, though. So, I'll stick with "good questions."
Yep, the temptation is to say "what a load of rubbish!" and see how you cope with the conflict!!
But of course it isn't a load of rubbish and I know exactly what you mean. I think the wisdom of Jesus - and therefore what we should be aiming for - was knowing when confrontation was necessary and when it wasn't.
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