By OUR LIFE JOURNEY
She asked a question in a general group on WhatsApp.
I responded to the question professionally.
She tagged my response and typed: You’re an idiot.
Upon thinking through her response, I calmly replied: “Thanks so much. Now that you have drawn my attention to this idiotic part of me, I’ll surely work on it. God bless you, my dear…”
And the whole platform shook. Over 118 people commented. They were so surprised by my calm response. Of course, she was terribly bashed to the extent that she “left” the group.
An hour later, she called me to apologize for how stupid she’s been, etc. I forgave her and we became friends.
Then I later ended up handling her premarital counseling sessions.
Two days ago, on my birthday, she and her husband surprised me with a gift worth over $10,000. This was a year after she called me an idiot.
Life Lessons From This Experience
1. Maturity: Your reaction to negative feedback or situations shows how mature you are.
2. Choice: You have the power of choice whenever anybody does or says anything offensive to you.
3. Self-Control: If someone calls you anything negative and you lose yourself and begin to fight or shout or do anything terrible, you only prove them right.
4. Silence Is Golden: It is better to keep quiet and let people think you’re a fool than to open your mouth to enable them to confirm you’re truly a fool.
5. Discernment: You cannot throw both the baby and the dirty bathwater away just because the baby had pooed in the bathwater.
6. Positive Power: You have the power to win people through your maturity and composure and not through overly being more sanctimonious than the person.
7. Positive Impact: Life is all about people. If I had responded to her negatively, I would have lost a friend forever.
8. Wisdom: There are people who are sent to you by God to make your life journey worthwhile. You might meet them at a fighting point. Be wise even when you’re angry.
9. Humility: She was humble enough to call and apologize.
10. Reconciliation: Maybe there’s someone you need to reconcile with today, go ahead and do just that.
We can all get better if we imbibe these 10 lessons and apply them to ourselves.
– Author Unknown
