How to Deal With Difficult PeopleSample

Have you ever watched a cooking show? I watched many cooking channels for several years of my early married days. I needed to learn the art of cooking, and I also slightly enjoyed watching people get voted off shows because they were horrible cooks. One of the biggest reasons people got voted off the shows was that they didn’t “season” their food. They didn’t use salt. I am a believer in Salt. If you ever invite me to dinner, please just put the salt shaker in front of my plate. These contestants would prepare the food so well, using many different spices and methods, but would forget to add the one ingredient that makes something flavorful - salt.

Salt brings out flavor. It enhances things. It turns something from abysmal, lackluster, or bland into something worth eating. Salt makes everything better.

Paul says our words should always be with grace, as if they were seasoned with salt. Our words should leave conversations better than when they started. Our words should be building up, not tearing down.

Ultimately, people are difficult because we live difficult lives. We come from broken backgrounds that wound, mold, and shape us. People have to learn through scripture how to break those cycles, which can be a very challenging and complex process. Suppose people, including ourselves, aren’t reading the scriptures and don’t know the FREEDOM JESUS GIVES US THROUGH THE CROSS, and they don’t walk according to the spirit. In that case,/we are walking in death, which means - of course, we are going to be difficult because that’s not putting on the spirit of Christ.

I love how Paul gives us clear, definitive steps to deal with difficult people in today’s passage. We have to put on Love. This means that we have to choose to do it, not in our own strength but with the help of the Holy Spirit. He also says that we are to sing to one another with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness. This is how I justify living through Disney musicals in my house.

So let’s season with grace, Show MERCY, and ask for eyes to see like God. Be salty - in Jesus' name.