When Push Comes to Shove

You can tell a lot about people’s character when they encounter conflict, can’t you? When push comes to shove, what are you made of?

With grandkids, there always seems to be one conflict or another and they don’t shy away from it. As grandparents, we can help them learn to overcome difficulties and conflicts through character training.

Everybody at one time or another will have something hard they have to deal with. Everyone has conflict now and then. What conflict are you going through? What pain are you enduring?

The whole reason for my website, Character & Virtue, is to help you live life to the fullest, to draw on learned character traits, and to be the best possible version of yourselves when push comes to shove.

During times of conflict, what you are made of becomes evident. Your character shows up in fight or flight. Strength comes from the traits you’ve learned and practiced along the way; traits like patience, courage, love, and endurance, just to name a few.

Conflict

I admit I don’t like conflict. I try to avoid it. I’m sugar and spice and everything nice. I can turn the other cheek and avoid conflict like nobody’s business. That’s what the Bible says to do, right? 70 times 7 times? –It’s a good rule but not always doable. Not to the detriment of always trying to please others or compromise what you believe, but it’s good practice. A little conflict is healthy and can help us grow. But we have to make sure that’s the case and we aren’t engaging in conflict for conflict’s sake.

Sometimes, I wish I could be that person who fires back great quips and “barbs”. It seems I always have great things to say in my head, after the fact. Can you relate? There’s a reason, though, why I shouldn’t. Some things are better left unsaid.

 A mild answer turns back wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1

Action Steps

This week, take some time and go through the Character Traits page and pick out a couple of traits that you think you should work on to strengthen your character or resolve some conflict Put them on your calendar. Schedule them into your day. Some of the traits have worksheets to help you. Our time here on earth is short, but our purpose is clear. St. Ignatius of Loyola sets us straight:

 “Man was created for a certain end. This end is to praise, to reverence and to serve the Lord his God and by this means to arrive at eternal salvation. All other beings and objects that surround us on the earth were created for the benefit of man and to be useful to him, as means to his final end; hence his obligation to use, or to abstain from the use of, these creatures, according as they bring him nearer to that end, or tend to separate him from it.”
—St. Ignatius of Loyola, p. 18

When push comes to shove, let us remember our end. Help us to remember that a little conflict is healthy and should be expected. But it should always strengthen our character and draw us closer to the One who created us.

Thanks for following along. I appreciate you! God bless.–Barb