dealing with annoying people..

i admit that there are some people in my life who tend to annoy me sometimes. i wish i wasn't that easily annoyed! that's something i'm still dealing with. i don't always react as i should. but i was thinking..how does God want me to react..

i think that God would want me to be kind, but not expect kindness in return. Some people are maybe dealing with hurt and emotional problems, and so it might be difficult for them to show love to others (though it doesn't mean that they don't love). also it happens to us all that we just have a bad day.
if someone is being mean because they are dealing with hurt, etc, inside themselves...it might be that only God can truly heal them. But as His children, we should show His love and compassion to a hurting world.. to whoever needs it most.. and then trust God to use it for healing. Sometimes we can be good to people and they'll still think badly of us.. and that can be really difficult to deal with, well it's difficult for me. But it's good to remember.. if you do good deeds and no one notices, that's a blessing.. because Christ said that if we do good things in secret, our reward would be from our Father. St. Therese of Lisieux spent her life doing small unnoticed deeds of kindness, out of love for God, and she is a great example for us all to follow. I have so much to learn from her. I think God would want us to just follow Him and do good to others, and not expect any reward except that of pleasing Him.

I read "No Greater Love" by Mother Teresa a few months ago, and it really taught me a lot.. she spent her life helping the poor, and she treated them with so much love and respect that some of them even turned to God as a result. Most people who feel lonely or are hurting just want someone who loves and respects them for who they are, values their friendship...

If we repay evil with evil, there would only be more evil. But if we do good to those who hurt us, as Jesus taught, then the devil would lose another battle.. when angry, hurting people are shown love in return, many times their hearts are changed.. they are closer to being healed. and they find it easier to be loving themselves. if others would criticize you for not repaying evil with evil, it's important to remember that as Christians we're called to please God, not people. And if they'll praise you for it, it's also important to remember that.

Someone asked recently.. to what extent should we go to show love to our neighbour. Christ said, there is no greater love but to lay down your life for another.
We should love even if it hurts. In fact, until it hurts. That's the type of love that God has shown us. If our love doesn't EVER cost us anything, it's probably too small.

I admit that many times my love is too small..
But God's love is infinite. When we feel that we have no love to give, all we have to do is give HIS love. He gives to us, so that we may give to others.

My prayer for today is that God would teach me how to be a more loving person.. how to be more patient, more kind, more compassionate to others.. how to treat people with dignity and respect, remembering that they too were created by God, and loved by Him before Creation. I pray that I would be better at loving my enemies, and also those who are not my enemies but who sometimes annoy me. Lord help me remember my own sinfulness, and the many times that I have annoyed and hurt others. My prayer is also that I would do all this with humility, not thinking much of myself, and not for any reward.. and also that I would do good works in secret, not telling them to anyone..Lord let me never be tempted to pride.

Prayer of St. Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

I find this quote by CS Lewis very insightful:

"the load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption as you now meet, if at all, only in nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat - the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden."

(CS Lewis, Weight of Glory).