One Tip for Dealing with Difficult People
“I thought he was a Christian.”
That’s a comment no one wants to have said about them.
There’s a good chance the next few weeks are going to be frothy and at times turbulent as we try to squeeze in all the Christmas possible. We’re going to be giving direction, taking direction, producing deadlines, prompting expectations, responding to expectations—in a word, we’re going to be busy, often in stressful times.
During these tumultuous times, we will inevitably deal with difficult people.
For now, let’s assume you are not the difficult person (even though we know each of us is on occasion). Given that, my prayer is that those having to deal with us at those times read this post.
You can go to the internet and search for “How to deal with difficult people,” and find plenty of books, lists, and blog posts about this topic. When I searched, Google gave me about 8.5 billion results. I got every one of them right at my fingertips in 0.91 seconds.
I’d like to make this simple for us.
One Tip for Dealing with Difficult People #hope #joy #writingcommunity Click To TweetIf we don’t want someone to think or sarcastically announce, “I thought he was a Christian,” we would do well to follow this one command straight from Jesus’ teaching. He provided this wisdom while speaking to many people in a series of sermons. In this address, Jesus teaches us how to deal with difficult people.
I’m not going to pretend His direction is easy to follow if we determine to do it on our own. We need spiritual empowerment from the teacher Himself. But remember, Jesus promises that our burden will be light when we are yoked with Him. (Matthew 11:28-30) We don’t have to follow a law or set of regulations on our own. We, instead, place our faith in Him and follow Him. Yoked with Jesus, our burden is now light.
Here are all the tips and lists in one command.
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone take your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:27-31, NASB)
This year, instead of allowing our pride to dictate a response to difficult people, let’s allow those situations to be a light for Jesus.
Have you ever had to put this into practice?
Today’s feature photo comes from a “photo-a-day” challenge I pursued several years ago. The photo inspires the topic. For me, the posts challenge my creativity, writing discipline, and dependence on God for His message. My prayer is that you find hope in God’s Word, and that you’ll share your hope with others.
Your timing is interesting Tim…. I was just thinking this morning that I wanted to run my ‘dealing with difficult people’ post next week or the week after. I started reading your blog post, and you’ve summed it all up with this one command from Jesus. Now I don’t need to run my post.😁 Seriously, though, if we could all just follow this one command, the world would be a much better place. Wishing you a stress-free month and only pleasant people to deal with!
Thank you Terri! Oh, such a wonderful thought, to have a stress-free, pleasant people-only month! And those dealing with me would want the same thing. Please run your tips. I love reading your posts. Oh, and I just remedied my issue with finding you at, I think, so I’ll be looking for your emails again.
Thanks so much for finding me Tim! Moving the blog sure has been a learning experience. If nothing else, it has taught me perseverance. 😁 Blessings to you!
I love the turbulent ocean picture. I love all the ocean pictures from your last few posts. Difficult people make me want to go to the ocean. By MYSELF! 🙂 I have learned to be quiet. Hold my thoughts in. When its really bad… I do an old lamaze trick that I used to teach. Imagine yourself being somewhere else that would be fun or special to you. I dream of being at the beach.
Jesus went to the garden. And Prayed. I think that goes along with your verse pretty well.
Thank you Jane. For sure, prayer is mayo ch needed in these situations.
The picture is gorgeous. And that’s how I feel when I’m around difficult – and when I’m upset and want to be the difficult person…. Thank you for your post. A great reminder of how I want to act – NOT be difficult. And pray for people who are.