“Small is the life built upon how others make us feel.” ~Jay Meyer
Taking people and situations personally when the person and/or situation is not directed at us is a great way to accelerate self-doubt and is another tool the devil uses out of our fear mechanism to get us to have no confidence and a very small life.
Have you ever walked into a room full of people and instead of appreciating the interaction you had with the majority of the people, your focus turns to the one person “who you felt, snubbed you?”
Don Miguel Ruiz, who wrote one of my favorite self-help books, The Four Agreements, says this about taking things personally:
- Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.”
To Mr. Ruiz I say Amen. Taking things personally is not only a great way to experience needless suffering but it is a great way to keep your focus inward and is where the devil does his best work.
Instead of taking things personally, take things into consideration because in all situations there are lessons to be learned and usually the biggest lesson is not everything is about us.
Pray for the character strength (something the devil abhors) to not let others make you “feel” a certain way. Picture what it would look like to be open instead of closed, to be outward focused instead of inward focused, to be sensitive to the needs of others instead of sensitive to your own needs. Plan for this type of thinking as well as the fruits you will receive for it, and practice taking things into consideration instead of personally.
If you do this a day at a time I guarantee you will tick the devil off big time because he will have lost another “playmate.”
P.E.A.C.E.
Zechariah 12:5, “Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.”
