#4 of 12 "Thoughts on Thursdays"

Taken from the book:  POWER THOUGHTS", 12 Strategies to WIN the Battle of the Mind, written by Joyce Meyer:

"I am difficult to offend."

Joyce, like many of us, are either offended easily, because it tends to be the nature we were born with. Or we learned it. Maybe be a parent who 'fired back' at others easily and/or often. But that doesn't mean we have to stay that way!

The first paragraph of Meyer's chapter on becoming difficult to offend states, "People who want to live powerful lives must become experts at forgiving those who offend and hurt them. When someone hurts my feelings or is rude and insensitive to me, I find it helpful to quickly say, 'I will not be offended.' I have to say those words quietly in my heart if the person is still in my presence, but later when the memory of what he or she did returns to haunt me, I repeat them aloud. When I say, 'I will not be offended,' I always pray for God to help me, realizing that I can do nothing without Him. So once again, 'I pray and I say!'

She backs up her thinking with several Bible verses; here are two:

"Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything (without weakening)."

~ I Corinthians 13:7

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"Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall offend them or make them stumble."

~ Psalm 119:165

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Add today's thought to our collection for the past three weeks:  "I will not live in fear!"; "God loves ME unconditionally"; and "I can do all things through Christ who give me strength."