HUMBLE HAPPINESS

I Love Joyce Meyer. She's one of my favorite speaker/authors because she's not afraid to admit the mistakes she has made in the past. And many of her mistakes are things that all women can relate to. In her book, Woman to Woman she says: "To live in harmony, we must forgive quickly and frequently. We must not be easily offended. We should be generous in mercy and patience. We cannot be self-seeking, and that is where humility comes in."

I'm not easily offended, but I am easily hurt. Thankfully, I've learned to forgive quickly and frequently. I don't want to live in a constant state of sadness over hurtful offenses. It's no way to live and it makes life difficult for the people around me who feel they have to watch everything they say and do for fear of offending me. Touchy people are often avoided. It's just easier to stay away than to deal with the drama.

Some things are deserving of being offended. We can't avoid feeling offended when people are abusing us. But sometimes, like Joyce Meyer often points out, the problem lies within ourselves.
We lack humility and we are not generous in mercy and patience. We don't forgive quickly.

I guess it all comes down to being humble. Humble people are a joy to be around. It's the self-seekers that are difficult to live with in harmony. Joyce admits that she was once a self-seeker. She also admits that her life was miserable back then. But God taught her to be humble and now look where she is. There's a lesson for all of us.