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New Article: Five Words to Improve Your Relationships

 

               In the late 1800s, it was common for railway companies to plant formal gardens beside their stations.  These gardens were filled with trees, shrubs, flowers, and fruit trees.  Sometimes they also featured a kitchen garden growing lettuce, carrots, corn, and potatoes.  Estevan’s Canadian Pacific Railway Garden was once located where Mid-City Plumbing and Heating is today.

               The purpose of these gardens was to show what the land could produce.  After hours and sometimes days of riding across the featureless prairies, the railways wanted to show settlers the potential of their new home.  The gardens showed what was possible and they encouraged the settlers to transform their own land and discover its potential too.

               Today’s verse acts similarly, in that it challenges us to find the potential in our relationships by transforming how we approach them.  Colossians 3:12 says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience”.   

               Imagine how our interactions would change if we made it our priority to approach every situation and every person with an attitude that was compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient.  How much friction would be eliminated if those five attitudes guided our thoughts, words, and actions? Maybe the best way to realize how powerful those thoughts are is to think about what happens when they are absent.

               While sitting on a bench in Riding Mountain National Park eating ice cream, I watched families walk past me.  In almost every case, someone was mad, upset, or yelling at someone else.  The mom was grouchy because the kids were whining.  The kids were whining because they wanted to go to the beach.  The dad was impatient because he did not want to wait on the rest of them.  Instead of enjoying their long-awaited vacation, family after family looked miserable.    

Now, I get that!  I used to be (and sometimes still am) the grouchy, impatient dad.  However, I wanted to say to those families, “You would have a much better day if you tried being compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient!”  By the way, it is worth remembering that those five words describe how God deals with us. 

               When we act in Godly ways, we find the blessings of God.

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