Dealing with Difficult People

So we've all got that one person, or two, in our lives that just seem to annoy the heck out of us. It's inevitable that they produce themselves in our paths right at the very moment when we don't want to see them. They say things that get on our last nerves. They make comments when they should just stay quiet. And some of them are not going anywhere anytime soon. So what do we do? How do we react to the them?

We need to realize that everyone has this person in their lives and in return we are that someone in someone elses lives. We, as Christians, have been commanded to exhibit the fruits of the spirits. One importantly being that of patience. Patience allows us the opportunity to do nothing but sit back and begin to pray for a good dose of patience in regards to this person. It's not our job to change these difficult people but rather to change our perspective about them. I like to call these people, Sandpaper people. They are abbrasive and they rub us the wrong way. We prepare ourselves for how sandpaper will feel agasint our skin before it ever touches us, and that is how we act towards these people too. Before they ever get near us we have already prejudged them. We anticipate how they are going to treat us, what cruel thing they are going to say or do. This is where we go wrong. Instead of us assuming how they will be we need to see them the way Christ sees them. They are beautiful, important and worthy in His eyes. So, why not in our eyes?

3 things we need to do with these people;
1. Choose to love them. Look beyond their faults and see their worth.
2. Choose to encourage them. Be their cheerleader - privately or publicaly. Find one good aspect about them and focus on it. You can do this by complimenting them or just remembering that they have a good quality amongst their bad ones and constantly look for it.
3. Choose to be thankful for them. Difficult people are gifts from God. Hand picked for us and wrapped in God's love. He brings them in to our lives to smooth out rough edges in our own character. While dealing with people we have a hard time getting along with it makes us seek God for help. The end result, we begin asking God to give us patience, the ability to show kindness, etc and our relationship with Christ begins to strengthen as does our maturity in how we handle people around us.

The prayer to pray is simple. "Bless them. Change me."
We need to quite focusing on their faults and realize that maybe God just needs to do a good work within us. And when you are praying for someone, it's a little hard to be angry with them. And once you are handling them the way God would have you handle them, then you can not be responsible for the way that they act. You are only responsible for your actions towards them. Romands 12:21 says Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
I asked everyone to do something this week.
Find something that you can do to encourage your difficult person this week. And everyday pray for them. After one week, report back in on how your attitude has changed in regards to them. Prayer is powerful, changing everything and everyone who comes in contact with it.
Luke 6:28 Bless them that curse you, pray for them which despitefully use you.