Resist The Put Down

The other day, my friend sent a text to my land line

asking for my mobile number.

Fair enough, you say,  but the request baffled me,  as we had already had a half hour conversation and exchanged several texts earlier that day, on our mobile phones.

I composed several messages in reply, but deleted each one, as they were all either condescending, or rude, or designed to put down my friend in some subtle way.

Eventually, I overcame myself,  and simply sent a text answering the question, and got a friendly Thank You in reply.  Simple.  Our friendship is stronger than ever and I have learnt something about myself. Which I am now sharing with you, to hopefully inspire, benefit and encourage you.

Why do we feel the need to lift ourselves up, by putting someone down?  My own friend, for crying out loud!  Fortunately, I resisted it.
My thinking was, rather than me showing my superiority, and loosing my friend in the process, I decided I would rather swallow my pride, hold back my haughty words, and choose to Love and Accept instead.
To extend Grace, rather than judgement.

After all, that’s how I would want to be treated.

I conquered myself, which is always the first and most difficult step.

What is this ugly, inner tendency, to make the other person appear a fool?  To say something sarcastic in public, to roll our eyes,  to  Tut  loudly, to look at others in the room for back up. It makes the other person cringe inside.  And when it was done to me, and the whole room laughed at me, I felt like running away and crying.  I’ve seen it all, and done it all. It’s horrible, I decide to never do it to another human being ever again.

A good measure, is to say to myself:

“How would I feel, if somebody spoke to me in this way”?

That will prompt me to Resist The Put Down,

and say something nice instead.