I want things to go my way. In my relationships, in my work, in everything that I do. But ugh...when it doesn’t. I become ugly inside, you feel me friend?

What I wish I had identified earlier, is that: Wanting our own way is woven into the fabric of our fallen nature. Insisting on our own way is the heart of all conflict. It is also the cause of almost all the ways humans abuse each other. Personal preferences are not wrong (unless for something inherently sinful). But insisting on personal preferences is very often wrong because it’s very often selfish.

Insisting on our own selfish way burdens us and others with conflict and discouragement, and causes others to stumble over temptation blocks of irritation, anger, resentment, and bitterness. This is a weight of sin we must lay aside (Heb 12:1).

Our selfishness is a master of disguise, wearing a thousand masks to cover its motives. Our selfishness is a wordsmith — bending, shaping, and sometimes twisting rationales for why our preferences are reasonable and right and even righteous (and, of course, best). Our selfishness is an attorney, trained from childhood in both defense and prosecution, bent on persuading judge and jury on behalf of its sole client.

Lord, help me to be less selfish.

Help me to love with patience & kindness. Give me the capacity to love others with a love that endures through every circumstance — A love that is always hopeful, that never loses faith, that adds to others instead of taking away.

Help me to trust that as I pursue loving others like you do, you are in control. You will right every wrong, you will transform me from the inside out & you will restore these relationships.

Thank You for paving the way. Thank You for loving us first so that we can love others like you do.