Monday, March 15th, 2010

Coping With Offensive People

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A tale was told of two porcupines who huddled together to get warm, but their quills kept needling and pricking each other so they finally had to move apart. Before long after they moved apart, they became cold and shivering, so they sidled back together. It wasn’t long before they were getting jabbed again. So, same story, same ending. The bottom line was that they needed each other, but they kept needling each other. That can be the story of human relationships, even among God’s people. We need each other, but we needle each other at times. It’s just part of our fallen nature, and sometimes we think that it’s the other person’s fault. It’s their imperfections that are bothering us, and sometimes that may be. Sometimes though, it’s our own imperfections that let things that shouldn’t get on our nerves to get on our nerves. It’s because of our flaws and our faults that maybe something in our mate, something in our parents, or something our brothers or sisters in Christ bothers us. We’re all flawed creatures, and so it’s not easy to get along. We’re sometimes like a bunch of porcupines in a sense. It’s very easy for us to be divided and have friction with each other. Yet the Bible has a lot to say about it so that we will keep from needling each other, or at least get along in spite of needling each other.