No matter how perfectly we may plan our daily lives, we often face situations we hate to be in – like scoldings from parents, complaints from teachers, a negative rant from our boss, a fight with our spouse or friend, and so on. And generally, when we are in such situations we panic and react impulsively. The after-effect of our reaction is usually a disappointment. We often end up later regretting and cursing ourselves for something we said or did in the heat of the moment.
Viktor Frankl, in his book ‘Man’s search for meaning’, writes, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
It’s worth thinking that we always have time to respond, but yet, in threatening situations we quickly react without much reasoning. And panicky reactions only make things worse and put our career, relationships, etc. in jeopardy. The Bible says “A hot-tempered person stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms a dispute.” Slow is the keyword here, let us just slow down in chaotic situations, and take time to respond. It may be wise to wait for a few seconds or even minutes when we face such situations; it is far better to pause and then respond. The patience to hold ourselves back in such a situation will help us lead a happier and content life. It will also help us be kinder to those around us and be a source of blessing and encouragement to them.
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