Catherine here. I agree with a lot of what you say and I found the above quite interesting. As you know I believe in an Almighty, All-loving, All-merciful, Triune God but I still get angry or have other emotions I don’t want. I agree with you, it is faking to pretend one doesn’t have them.

What I do and should do more often, is get alone (in the bedroom usually) shut the door and give God an honest account of the state of affairs. If I am furious or hurt by X I tell God what I think of him or her and shout at that person in a loud whisper (can’t really shout as we are in a semi and the neighbours would hear!). I use a pillow and punch X or shake him/her and hit X, maybe swear if I can’t restrain myself – just let all the fury and anguish out. When I’m exhausted or have calmed down I tell God how I would like X to be – how I think God intended X to be and I ask God to change him/her into the wonderful person God intended them to be at the beginning. Then I have to tell God my faults, i.e. not being able to forgive X, hating X, the foul things I think about X and other faults I know I have which could easily get up X’s nose and I ask God to change me too and forgive me. And He does. He’s wonderful! I feel better after that.

And then if the bad feelings come back because X has again hurt or upset me I repeat the process. Change comes gradually.

Hope you find that helpful?

Lots of love. God bless. Catherine xxxx

No, I don’t think you should just accept this person’s behaviour. I would want to try to find out why she is so angry and upset all the time. I think, in this situation, I would make more effort to try to establish this. You don’t have to try to “buy” this persons friendship. I think that we should show by our behaviour towards her that we will not lower ourselves to her level. My Mum’s killing her with kindness is a wonderful attitude, and I have always tried to live with this in mind. If you show a person that you are prepared to be loving, regardles of their behaviour, you give them a signal that whatever they say will not change the way you think of them, so they might look at their own behaviour and make changes! Christ said we must turn the other cheek, which, quite often is really hard, but we need to show the people who are difficult that they are of value and that we will not lower ourselves to their standards. This makes it virtually impossible for the person to continue being nasty. Of course, I do realise that there are going to be times when this is impossilbe, and the only way to cope is to disengage with the angry person, but, Thank God, I have been blessed that on many occasions, my approach has worked.

My gift to anyone, as you say, is the gift of love and friendship and, to a certain degree, acceptance of how they behave. Sometimes allowing for a person’s behaviour is a validation of yourself.

I also wanted to add that I feel your Daily Sunshine is brilliant. So many times your comments make me think about issues that I would normally never think of. Just spending time in contemplation is a calming experience, thought provoking and encouragement. Thank you.

Amazing how quickly problems grow out of control, when we let them fester.

And, so often, they’re only really problems in our head, anyway!
Namaste,
Clare
P.S. Hope you’re feeling more settled in Paris now!