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PROGRAM D-7604
How do you react to insults? Proverbs 12:16 says, “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent person overlooks an insult.” Well, in the middle of an already bad day, Alexander’s brother insulted him:
“On the way downstairs the elevator door closed on my foot and while we were waiting for my mom to go get the car Anthony made me fall where it was muddy and then when I started crying because of the mud Nick said I was a crybaby and while I was punching Nick for saying crybaby my mom came back with the car and scolded me for being muddy and fighting. I am having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, I told everybody. No one even answered.”
Alexander was foolish to show his annoyance with Nick. We’re foolish to let insults annoy us. One of my persistent personality problems is that I react too quickly and what I think usually shows on my face very clearly. We have to learn by God’s grace not to show our annoyance at once. Don’t over-react. And then overlook the insult.
Also, notice Alexander’s tendency to blame his problems on his brothers. That’s not just a childish thing, is it? Shifting blame pervades our culture. “I didn’t come from the right family,” or “My mother and father weren’t what they should have been,” or “I didn’t get the proper education,” or “We didn’t have any money.” On and on our excuses go.
You know, when you stand before Jesus you’re going to have to give an account for what you did with what you had. If you didn’t get as much as others, then you’re not as responsible as others. But you still have to show that you did all you could with what you had. Blaming our failures on other people, excusing our lack of commitment to Jesus because of what happened to us in our pasts will simply not hold water at the judgment seat of Christ. Like Alexander, we need to get rid of our propensity to blame our faults and failures on others, and instead ask God to change us.