How do you react to people who are rude? Do you respond in love as the Word says we should, or do you join them in their ungodly behavior? Not one of us appreciates irritable and irritating people. One definition of rudeness is being abrupt and unpleasantly forceful. I think there are a lot of people in the world like that today, largely because of the stressful lives most people live. People are trying to do too much in too little time and have more responsibility than they can realistically handle.
When a clerk in a store is rude to me, I can instantly feel my emotions start to rise up. As I said earlier, emotions rise up and then move out, wanting us to follow them. When I feel that, I know I need to take action. I have to reason with myself and remember that the person being rude probably has a lot of problems and she may not even realize how she sounds. I certainly remember lots of times in my life when people asked me why I was being so harsh and I didn’t even realize that I was. I just had a lot going on and felt pressured, so the pressure escaped in harsh voice tones. That did not excuse my bad behavior, but it was the root of the problem.
I am very thankful that I know the Word of God and have Him in my life to help and comfort me. But I try to remember that a lot of people in the world who are difficult to get along with don’t have that. I always want my behavior to be a witness for Christ and not something that would make Him ashamed of me. That being the case, I have had to work very hard with the Holy Spirit in developing the ability to act on the Word of God when people are rude instead of merely reacting to them with behavior that matches or tops theirs.
Jesus said that we have done nothing special if we treat people who treat us well, but if we are kind to someone who would qualify as an enemy, then we are doing well (see Luke 6:32-35).
This area is actually a very big one and presents a situation that we will deal with on and off throughout all our lives. People are everywhere, and not all of them are pleasant. So we must make a decision about how we are going to react toward them. Will you act on the Word of God and love them for His sake? Or will you merely react emotionally and end up perhaps acting worse than they act? Have you ever let a rude person ruin your day? Make a decision that you will not ever do that again because when you do, you are wasting some of the precious time that God has given you. When a day is gone, you can never get it back, so I urge you not to waste it being emotionally distraught over someone you may never even see again.
If you are in a situation that requires you to be with one of these hard-to-get-along-with people every day, I urge you to pray for them instead of reacting emotionally to them. Our prayers open a door for God to work through. Sometimes when we pray, God will lead us to confront a person like that. I am not saying we just have to put up with the person’s bad behavior, but remember that confrontation should still be done in the spirit of love.
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