We say things like, “I can’t handle it.” or, “They just won’t handle the situation.” Sometimes we even say it in reference to something that happened that a person hand no control over. Like, “I wouldn’t be able to handle my spouse dying.” Well, I’m sure if you ask a widow, she probably didn’t think she could either but she did, because it happened and she had no choice but to handle it.
We don’t choose to handle a death of a parent, spouse, child (born or unborn). We don’t choose to handle a tornado hitting our town or a hurricane flattening our house. We don’t choose to handle these things, but we do choose how we handle them. Even ignoring the problem or running away from it is a form of handling it.
So the choice we’re left with is not if we’ll handling something, but how are we going to handle it.
There’s a couple situations in my life right now that I’m handling….rather poorly I think. They’re happening wether I want them to or not. I can’t control people, and so I can’t control what’s going on, but I have a choice in my reaction. And while every scenario we come upon in life has it’s unique circumstances, there’s still some firm principles I can base how I handle things on:
Am I handling it with a quick temper?
Am I handling it with a slanderous tongue?
Am I handling it by ignoring my own faults?
Am I handling it by holding onto jealously or bitterness?
Am I handling it by trying to make them stumble and fall?
Am I handling it by looking only at how it affects me and not looking at others’ perspectives?
Am I trading gratefulness for complaining?
Am I quick to listen and slow to speak?
The Bible’s full of so many principles on how to handle things correctly. Am I digging into Scripture and then putting those principles I learn into practice or am I staying in my own little mind and handling it the way I want to?
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