Last night was a bit frustrating for a few reasons:
- The girls started bickering about who was going to pick up their room
- Then Madi told Chloe to shut up
- Then Jayden threw his water bottle at Madi as his way of defending Chloe
- Then I spanked Jayden
It just wasn’t a good situation.
I tried to handle it the best I could and after things calmed down, I explained to each of them what I felt had happened.
Then, to top that off, our painter who has done about half the work we contracted with him, told me via text that he wouldn’t be able to get to finishing our project until about July…
This is a guy in my BNI group so it made me even more upset.
The more I talked to Becky about it and read his text, the more angry I felt myself getting.
As Becky and I did our AEIOUs, I even said U’s that I don’t think were that big of a deal; things about how I felt frustrated that Becky was gone most of the night to aerobics, I felt like I needed more recognition for all the work I was doing with the kids, dumb stuff like that.
As I’ve thought about it today, I don’t really think those other things were a big deal at all – I wasn’t mad at all until the whole paint texting went down.
I know that me sharing those “carnal Nate” experiences from before really scare Becky, and they scare me too. I don’t want to go back to that way of thinking or that prideful and selfish demeanor. Nor do I want to blame or be angry at others all the time.
So today I’m trying to reflect. Today I’m trying to calm down. Today I talked to the painter – it didn’t go that well, but at least he came and talked to me. I’m hoping we will get things done sooner than later.
I want to live in recovery today.
I want to be my best self.
When I get back from a meeting, I will do a bit more study.
Hasta luego!
Nate
I’m back for a bit more study; I think I’ll stick to the topic I started with: Frustration.
One of the questions I have about frustration is “Did Jesus Christ ever get frustrated?”
Other questions that come from that one:
- Is frustration a sin?
- Is frustration part of the “natural man” or is it just an emotion?
- Does Heavenly Father get frustrated with me?
- What are the best ways to deal with frustration in a Christ-like way?
One of the scriptures that comes to mind when I think about Christ and frustration is when he cleanses the temple during his last week on earth. In Matthew 21:12-14 it says:
12 ¶And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
13 And said unto them, It is written, My ahouse shall be called the house of bprayer; but ye have made it a cden of thieves.
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.
As I read on in that chapter, I found another story that I thought was interesting, especially in connection with what I felt yesterday as I met with a client who put me on the spot with questions I wasn’t prepared to answer, or maybe didn’t feel I needed to answer:
23 ¶And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what aauthority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?
24 And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what aauthority I do these things.
25 The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?26 But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a aprophet.
27 And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
Christ answered their slanted question with a question of his own that stumped them.
Obviously, my goal isn’t to stump the client, but sometimes answering the question in the form of questions is a great way to handle the tough ones.
If I was in the situation again I would respond like this:
Why should we hire your company?
Do you like a company that has been in business since 2006?
Do you like to work with people that you can meet in person and see face to face?
Do you like to work with an honest team?
Do you like to work with a company who loves what they do?
Do you like to work with a company that aims to over deliver on expectations?
Do you like to work with a company who values training their clients on how to use the website we build for you?
If you answered yes to all these questions, we must be a great fit because that’s what we do!
Then a few follow up questions:
What do you value most in working with an outside vendor?
When you’re looking to hire a company like ours, what are specific things you look for?
Tell me more about why you think our companies could work well together.
Personally, I believe Christ did get frustrated. He didn’t act out in anger, resentment, or hostility, but he wasn’t happy that the Jews weren’t getting it, they weren’t following him, and they were building their foundations on sand.
This video is a pretty good representation of Christ’s frustration:
I don’t think Christ was mad, but I do think he was frustrated.
This is the end of my study for today.
Hasta luego!
Nate
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