September 15, 2016 – Words of Wisdom
Mahatma Gandhi

“You can’t change how people treat you or what they say about you. All you can do is change how you react to it.”

“When his (Joseph) master (Potiphar) heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, “This is the way your servant treated me,” he became enraged. And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love; he gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.” Genesis 39:19-23

It is true, and I have told this to my children over and over again – if you allow the words of others to hurt you and affect you so much, all you do is give them power over you. When you are driven to despair and anger and other similar reactions over what others say to you and about you, you have reacted just the way they hope you might. One of the hardest things to do is to allow the comments of others, when they are hurtful and critical, to simply roll off your back by reminding yourself that you are a child of G-d – and as such, you are loved. This is how and where you regain the power. When you do not react, the power vacuum shifts – the air is sucked out of their words, and you are bolstered by the winds of the Holy Spirit. Joseph suffered time after time from the words and hurtful actions of family and others – yet he remained faithful to G-d and kept doing what he knew best – living into his G-d given gifts and talents.

We always need to be aware of our words, especially if they may be deemed hurtful to someone else. And, our own non-reaction to the words and actions of others is not weakness, it is strength – it is the power of the Holy Spirit working in you to live a life of forgiveness. And, when others try to hurt you, remember that the only words that matter are the ones we repeat in our communion service every Sunday – “The Body of Christ broken for YOU, and the Blood of Christ shed for YOU.”

Pastor Dave