BE REASONABLE, DO IT MY WAY!: I Timothy 3:3

I am sure that you work with, or have worked with a person who is (in there world) the center of the universe. They are always right (according to them) and if they don't get their way they can be unbearable. Truthfully, they're unbearable even when they get their way. Generally speaking, they are self-centered. Not good qualities for a leader of the church, or a husband and a father. 

"not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money." I Timothy 3:3

The phrase I want to focus on today is that we should not be quarrelsome. 

I would have to say that being quarrelsome is probably an area that God has done a lot of work in my life and will continue to deal with me for the foreseeable future. The idea is to be strong in your convictions without arguing over them. Being a bit more conservative them most of my fellow teachers often puts me at odds with the popular opinion. A friend once told me that people aren't ready to hear something until they are ready to hear something. When we are unwilling to listen we are unable to hear. One side of being quarrelsome is being unwilling to listen and the other is having to be heard. 

TWhen I was maybe nineteen my friends gave me a plaque for my birthday that read, "Be reasonable, do it my way!" I have learned that other peoples ways are just as good, if not better, than my own. I once went into my pastor's office and read him a two page list of things he said wrong. I am not sure I would do that now. I might pray a bit more and maybe think about humility. 

Now that I have had my little moment at the confessional, I encourage you to look at yourself. Are you a bit contentious? Do you always have to be right? Are you strong enough to be right and not have to prove it, to everyone, all the time?

Father, help us to be humble and strong, living according to the truth. May your Spirit work in and through us. Praise be to you in us today!