“It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.” (Proverbs 20:3)
Attitudes can be picked up on. The tone in one’s voice, the expression on one’s face, can communicate what’s going on inside. We are comforted when we know another is happy with us, we are troubled when we think we’ve displeased them in some way.
It is a simple matter when someone can tell us what’s wrong, but there are deeper “beefs” people have that are not so easily solved. It is not so much what we do that irks them, it is the way we are. We can be just as unhappy with another as they are with us. Such a state of mutual displeasure leads to a vicious cycle of finding fault.
There is a harmony we can have with each other that is not dependent on changing another into a form we like. Yes, we can all do our best not to provoke each other; but there is a place where we cease from strife through accepting the way another is. We may want them to change; but God would use what we find imperfect in them to change us.
A different attitude can make all the difference between peace and war. Let God change the tone in your voice and the look on your face by changing the attitude of your heart.