Positivity Might Be The Best Trimming You Bring To The Thanksgiving Table

Proverbs 12:25 & Ephesians 4:29

You Can Do More Than Cope With Difficult People; You Can Build Bridges of Relationship By Being Positive & Thankful

Soul Food

Proverbs 12:25

“Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.”

Ephesians 4:29

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Soul Search

• Do you have any painful stories about going to family gatherings – especially around the holidays?
  Can you talk about any of those experiences?

• How have you coped in the past when you knew that you had to be around people who are not easy to get along with or who you simply don’t like?

• What personality traits or idiosyncrasies do you have that make it difficult for others to be around you?
  Would you say you’re self-aware enough to know what those things are about you that cause others not to want to be around you?

• Have you thought about how you can be a person of influence and ‘climate change’ at family gatherings to bring positive changes to the environment?
  What might some of those positive changes be in terms of how you conduct yourself in order to change the environment?

Soul Moves

• You’ve heard the expression “kill them with kindness.”
  Think of it in the way that you can subdue bad or ill-tempered people by being kind to them instead of treating them with contempt or disdain.
  Think of ways to compliment and say kind things to people you would otherwise want to avoid or be rude to.

• Ask God to give you the strength (and possibly courage) to remain in the same room with people you would otherwise want to avoid.

• Once you have the courage and strength to stay in the same room, ask God to show you how to relate to, and engage with, people whose personality and behavior turn you off.
  Remember that often-times people who exhibit bad behavior and ill manners are people who are troubled and have been deeply hurt.
  Ask God to help you to be an agent of healing.

• Ask God, by His Holy Spirit, to show you the good qualities in the people you don’t like.
  Look for opportunities to tell them the qualities that you like and admire in them.
  Also, try to remember good stories that you have about them (if there are any you can remember) and recall those stories.