Do you make those around you better?
Do the people around you take everything you say in the wrong way? Are you being critical or helpful? Maybe because you don’t sugar coat it they think you don’t have their best interest at heart. In today’s society it has become harder and harder to give helpful comments without stepping over the line of political and emotional correctness. Everyone today seems to be a victim of one thing or another. If you go around with a nose that discharges disgusting things and I ask you if you need a tissue, I am hurting your feelings and bullying you. Never mind the people who are exposed to the germs and the stomach churning sight in front of their eyes, nothing can be said that won’t be twisted and taken the wrong way. We are so sensitive to the way and what is said, we don’t even consider these people may be trying to help us. The statement never gets past their ears to their brain, it stops at their feelings and they remain the victim. Can you image going to a job interview with your nose running? If you had reined in your pride and accepted the tissue, your interview would have probably had a more positive outcome. Just as a chick, butterfly, tortoise, or anything else that has to struggle to come into this world, it is that struggle that makes them strong. If someone helps them it only makes them weak, and even can result in death. Sometimes it is the tough love that will make you a better stronger person. Don’t take everything as a criticism, some things are said to sharpen you into a more effective person. Just like a knife, that is dull, it is still a knife, but it will not perform at its best unless it has a sharp edge. That edge can only happen if the knife is rubbed against a hard surface, often another piece of steel. Not a feather, or soft blanket will put an edge on that knife and make it work better than before.
You may have a boss who tells you all the time that you are doing something wrong. He is not doing that to be mean, no matter what you may think. He wants you to do a better job, so his company will be more productive. He will not get the results he wants by telling you everything you are doing is great. If he did everything would remain the same and no improvement would be made. Yes, it may hurt you feelings for a bit, but if you put your pride away and listen, you will be better for the comments he made to you.
The same may be said about the preacher at your church or on the radio. He may give a message that you think he wrote just for you. What he said hit home and hurt your feelings, and so you bear a grudge against the preacher. Trust me, over half the congregation fit into his sermon one way or another, but your conscience was convicting you. Instead of listening to his scripture verses and instructions, you choose to let your feelings get hurt, stopping any improvements that could have been made, in their tracks.
The Bible is sharper than any two-edged sword, and there is no better whet stone that what lies between its covers. Listen to the messages of the pastor, and read it with an open mind and heart, so it can sharpen you to be the best you can be. The sharper you are the more effective your life can be.
As parents we need to teach our children to take our reproof with the love that it is administered. Love and comfort them if what we say and do hurts their feelings, but explain that you find no joy in their chastisement, but you want them to be all that you know they can be. It is just like practicing a musical instrument, when they get lazy and don’t feel like taking the time to practice, you must step in as the whet stone to sharpen their skills, by insisting they practice. You will not be popular, but they will be better for it, no sugar-coating will do that.
We as writers must constantly improve on our craft. Our agents or critics will let us know when what we turn out is not our best work. It may hurt our feelings, and we may pout a bit, but if we choke down our pride, and listen, we will be better writers for it.
Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
Proverbs 27:17
If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
Hebrews 10:10
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25