Is a Crisis Preventable?

Procrastination may eventually create a crisis in significant areas of a relationship. If important issues are neglected and unresolved, they can be responsible for creating a crisis. Failure to adjust to personal differences leads to misunderstandings and miscommunications in relationships.

Efforts to discuss issues may digress into anger if differences in personalities, beliefs, and feelings are allowed to dominate and potentially cause tension. If just thinking about certain issues arouse acute anxiety, postpone discussing these issues until after Thanksgiving celebrations. 

By focusing on mutual feelings of gratitude, tension and irritability can be averted. God’s word encourages us to “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.” Isaiah 26:3 promises to “keep in perfect peace those who trust in him.” So do not delay in asking God for wisdom and peace.  

                    

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Do your best to preserve the unity which the Spirit gives by means of the peace that binds you together.

~Ephesians 4:3 Good News Bible

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What Are the Long-term Effects of Submitting to Anger?

Submitting to anger can generate damaging consequences for the one possessing it as well as the one to whom it is directed. I recently witnessed a man intent on changing lanes in heavy freeway traffic. The driver next to him refused to yield, resulting in the impatient one yelling obscenities punctuated by threatening gestures. 

Why submit to anger, which in this case instantly evolved into rage? Would the images imprinted in these people’s minds and emotions remain there indefinitely? Adrenaline that flooded the bloodstream of both drivers would make it impossible to forget the madness of what occurred.

What other options were available? 

Simply exhibiting patience gives compassion, even empathy, a chance to subdue frustration and anger. Patience creates empathy, which in turn prevents anger and rage from gaining control. Remember, patience is a gift of the Holy Spirit that God provides to those who earnestly seek it. 

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Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  

~Ephesians 4:2-3 New Living Translation

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Build Bonds That Last

Human nature prompts us toward bonding with special people defined as family or friend. The need for bonding is never rendered null and void except in select individuals who choose to live apart from others. Physical attraction plays a major role in bringing people together, but how well they communicate will either enhance physical attraction or spoil it.

Communication determines how loving, intimate, and strong a relationship becomes. With open communication, bonding continues to be strengthened throughout a marriage or friendship. On the other hand, relationships fail if the capacity for bonding is limited by what is revealed about each other’s personality and character.

When Adam saw Eve he proclaimed, "This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh." Obviously, the physical attraction included a spiritual dimension which provided bonding that would last a lifetime. Open, mature communication nurtures the bond that’s indispensable for a relationship to grow and mature. This is God's plan for a relationship.

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What a joy is it to find just the right word for the right occasion!

~Proverbs 15:23 Good News Bible

 Accept life with humility and patience, generously making allowances for each other because you love each other. Make it your aim to be at one in the Spirit, and you will be bound together in peace.

~Ephesians 4:2-3 Phillips – New Testament in Modern English

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