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PROGRAM D-8022
Do you know how to manage your emotions under pressure? This is a self-discipline that is vital to your ability to succeed, especially in the workplace where you are dealing with all kinds of people!
Here’s a question for you: How much emotional energy do you waste by overreacting? Quite frankly, this is a hot button for me. I can easily overreact and, believe me, I always live to regret it.
Years ago, God began to teach me to respond rather than react. Responding requires discipline and self-control. First, you have to be aware of the fact that you have a tendency to overreact. Then, you must have an alternate strategy which guides you in your response so you don’t react.
Don’t be surprised to discover that sometimes those first involuntary reactions are not what they should be. In other words, the inappropriate reaction just happens, involuntarily, before you can stop it. The problem begins when you allow those reactions to control your behavior—when you haven’t learned enough self-discipline to be able to wait through the reaction and then decide how best to respond.
Here are some verses that remind us of the need to respond rather than react:
To answer before listening – that is folly and shame. Proverbs 18:13
Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for them. Proverbs 29:20
Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult. Proverbs 12:16
Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. 1 Thessalonians 5:15
If overreacting is an emotion that plagues you, as it often does for me, God can give you the grace to be an overcomer and learn to get beyond your reaction to a place where you can respond in the right way. As you learn to do that, you will discover that not only does it greatly improve your relationships, but it reduces your own stress because you don’t have to live with the regrets of the things you said or did in react-mode.