Bad habits die hard.

Stop praying for them to understand. Stop praying for them to just hear you out. Stop praying that God will make them listen to you.

Start praying for God to change their heart and start praying for God to grant you patience.

You cannot change someone. No matter how hard you try or how many talks you have with them. Of course, you should try talking to someone about their problems and show them God's love but when it becomes twice a week, same conversation over and over, you are eventually going to get frustrated and angry. You are going to start asking God why He hasn't helped this person by now or why He hasn't given you everything you needed to say to help this person. When this happens, walk away.

Take a step back when you begin to question God's plan. If you have said what you needed to say and have done everything you can think of to help that person, step back. Stop "beating a dead horse". Maybe it's God's turn to try and get through to that person. Yes, we are here to spread God's love but there comes a point when you have to take the back seat and let God drive. Let God take the situation into His hands and see what He can do.

You then will have to find peace in your efforts.

You then will have to find peace in the waiting.

You then will have to find peace in knowing it's all in God's hands.

Maybe you have a friend that is in a dark place, maybe you have a parent that won't put the bottle down, or maybe you have a better half that is unintentionally damaging you. In every situation, I'm sure you have yelled and screamed and cried and begged to the other person to help change them, to help open their eyes and see the problem but nothing worked. When the situation begins to change you and create this bitter, angry person because they aren't who you want them to be, take a huge step back.

I don't mean, drop that person and say "BYE, good luck". I mean, don't compromise the person that you are in your efforts to change them. Continually invite them to church or send them encouraging scripture weekly but don't continually yell and scream until they hear you.

When that person is ready to change, God will change them. God is on their side no matter the darkness and you must find peace in that. You also must have arms wide open when that person comes to you and is ready to finally change. It takes courage in swallowing one's pride and admitting that they have a problem but it's a beautiful thing to hear them say they are ready to become a better person. Yes, there will be slip ups and it will not be smooth sailing but let them lean on you when God begins to change that person's heart because in order to become a new person, you must go through a lot of pain to lose that old person.

Bad habits die hard.

LIKE IT? SHARE IT! SUBSCRIBE!