No Time to Be Offended

It’s easy to get offended on a daily basis. With the political climate what it is, you have a chance to get your feathers ruffled every time you log onto Facebook!

In the world of birds, ruffled feathers can indicate a number of things;  the need to cool off, an attempt to appear larger because of being threatened, annoyed or fearful. It can even be viral.

In the world of people,  ruffled feathers refers to someone who is offended. As much as I hate to admit it, being offended is really just pride.  So, your sense of being right has been challenged, huh?  Welcome to the club. Most of us don’t have to think back too far to recall taking offense at something someone said or did. We even get offended on behalf of other people. : )

Bottom line – it’s too expensive to go there. Negative feelings are viral and don’t have to be verbalized to be spread – nonverbal communication is powerful.

Being offended leads to unforgiveness which opens the door to bitterness.  It’s said that bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.

If you’ve sipped of that poison, I HAVE THE ANTIDOTE!  It’s found in the book of Phillipians. I memorized this long ago and it serves me well…

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is fair, whatever is pure, whatever is acceptable, whatever is commendable, if there is anything of excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy-keep thinking about these things.”

Feathers ruffled? Shake it off. You can’t control what other people say or do but you CAN control how you respond.

Easier said than done for sure. Reach deep and choose to live a life of love. It’s a lot more fun.  Less stressful too – ask any old bird.

Note: One of my taglines as a business coach is. “I work with teams to take the “dys” out of dysfunction and put the ”fun” back in. I’ve had lots of experience with smoothing ruffled feathers. Let me know if I can help.