Life is full of people—some easy to love and some… not so easy. Yet the call to “bear with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2) reminds us that relationships thrive not because everyone is perfect, but because we are willing to show patience, grace, and understanding.
Bearing With Others Means More Than Tolerating
To “bear with” someone doesn’t just mean putting up with them until they change. It means choosing to show kindness even when you’re misunderstood. It means offering patience when someone is still learning. It means extending grace in the same way God has extended grace to us.
Why It Matters
Every person you meet is carrying battles you may never see—silent struggles, unspoken fears, unseen wounds. Bearing with others is about recognizing that truth and deciding not to add weight to their load but to lighten it with compassion.
It Strengthens Us Too
When we learn to bear with others, it doesn’t just make life easier for them—it grows our character. It stretches our patience, deepens our humility, and teaches us to love in ways that go beyond convenience. True love is proven not in easy moments, but in the moments where it costs us something.
A Simple Practice for Today
The next time someone frustrates or disappoints you, pause and ask yourself:
👉 “How has God borne with me?”
If He has shown us such endless mercy, surely we can extend a little more patience and kindness to those around us.
✨ Today’s Takeaway:
Bearing with others isn’t weakness—it’s strength under control. It’s choosing love over irritation, patience over pride, and grace over judgment. The world needs more people who are willing to bear with others. Be one of them.
If you can’t find five minutes, can you spare one or two?
8/30– Can You Spare A Minute?
9/14–8/30–Moan and groan—how many of you know people that all they do is moan and groan? People say I’m not happy with my job. They say 87% of the people go to job that they hate. We have the dubious distinction in this country that on Monday morning between 6 an 9AM the heart attack rate increases over 35%!! People going to jobs that they hate. Their hearts tell them didn’t I tell you I didn’t want to go and they attack them?I can imagine that some of y’all don’t want to go to work next Monday.
People all they do is moan and groan. I’m not making enough money, I’m unhappy with my job! So, the thing about it is this…. all some people do is moan and groan.
I heard a story about some men on a porch. A man was walking by and heard the dog howling and whining. He asked the men why the dog was whining. They said he was laying on a nail. The man asked them why the dog didn’t get off the nail. He said because it wasn’t hurting enough.
I heard someone say that God gave us Ten Commandments but if He has given an eleventh it would have been “Thou Shall Not Bellyache”
We all want to be known as helpful people. Deep down, it feels good to step in, lend a hand, and make a difference. But there’s a fine line between being a helper and becoming a hindrance. Sometimes, what we call “helping” is actually slowing someone down, discouraging them, or even keeping them from growing.
Helpers Empower, Hindrances Control
A true helper empowers others. They don’t take over or demand credit—they make the burden lighter, the road smoother, and the path clearer. A hindrance, on the other hand, often means well but ends up adding weight to someone’s load instead of lifting it. The difference is in the spirit behind the action. Are you giving life, or are you draining it?
The Wrong Kind of Help
Imagine a child learning to tie their shoes. If you always step in and do it for them, you may think you’re helping, but really you’re hindering their growth. The same happens in life. Sometimes our “help” comes from impatience, pride, or the desire to control outcomes. That’s not help—that’s holding someone back.
The Right Kind of Help
The best kind of help comes with humility and wisdom. It asks: “Does this make things better for them, or easier for me?” True help might look like encouragement, a word of advice, or simply standing nearby in case they stumble. Sometimes helping means stepping back and allowing someone the space to grow stronger on their own.
A Question to Ask Yourself
Before you step in, pause and ask:
👉 “Will this action help them rise, or will it hold them down?”
Helpers lift. Hindrances weigh down. Choose to be the kind of person who builds up, not tears down—who empowers, not controls—who helps, not hinders.
✨ Today’s Takeaway:
The world doesn’t need more people who get in the way. It needs people who make the way easier. Be the one who lifts, encourages, and empowers.
Those who are comfortable with themselves don’t criticize
Story:
My Dad taught me two valuables lessons before he died.
One, don’t ever brag on yourself. Proverbs 27: 2 tells us “Let another lips praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger and not thine own lips.
Lesson two was not to ever make fun of anyone. To me, making fun of another is kin to criticizing. We were at a basketball game when I was about 8 or 9 years old. A player on the court had some of the biggest ears I had ever seen on a person. I blurted out, “Look at old Dumbo out there, the one with the big ears. It looks like he might fly away. My Dad was furious and I believe if there had not been so many witnesses there, I may have really been punished.
I learned not to make fun or criticize right then, that day! I learned to root for the Underdog. It takes a big man not to cheapen himself by criticizing another. I might not know how to explain class but, I know it when I see it!
My oldest Grandson was five years old when his Sister was born. He had got used to being the only child and the “center of attention.” We were looking at her through the hospital window and everyone was talking about how pretty she was. They remarked at her size and how big she was at 9 pounds and 15 ounces. My Grandson must have got tired of been overlooked, because he said loudly, “Look at me, look at me, I’m big.”
I still carry my Dad’s two lessons in my tool box. I would not want to be without them for even one day.
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Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
If you can’t find five minutes, can you spare one or two?
8/29– Can You Spare A Minute?
8/29–The moso is a bamboo plant that grows in China and the Far East. After the moso is planted, no visible growth occurs for up to five years – event under ideal conditions!
Then, unbelievably, it suddenly begins growing at the rate of nearly two and one half feet per day, reaching a full height of ninety feet within six weeks. The moso’s rapid growth is due to the miles of roots it develops during those first five years, five years of getting ready.
May it be that as we, and our students mature, Eph. 2:17 becomes true in our case, that we “may be rooted and established on the foundation.”
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Everyone loves an underdog story. Something in us comes alive when we see the overlooked, the underestimated, and the counted-out rise to victory. Underdogs remind us that success is not determined by size, status, or circumstance, but by heart, persistence, and faith.
Think about David facing Goliath. On the surface, David didn’t stand a chance. He didn’t have the armor, the experience, or the strength. But what he did have was courage, skill, and an unshakable faith in God. That was enough to turn the impossible into victory.
Being an underdog may feel like a disadvantage, but it actually carries hidden power. Underdogs are underestimated, which means they are free to surprise the world. They are driven by hunger, passion, and the desire to prove that limitations don’t define destiny.
If you feel like the odds are against you today, take heart. Every giant that looms over you is just another opportunity to rise higher. What others see as weakness, God can use as strength. What others dismiss, He can elevate.
Remember: champions aren’t born on mountaintops—they are forged in valleys, where faith is tested, and perseverance is required.
Thought for the Day: When life casts you as the underdog, step onto the field with courage—you may just write the victory story others will talk about.
Proverbs 6:16-19. These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.”
Story:
As you are reading this I am sure some of you have strained relationships that need fixing and have needed fixing for such a long time. Fathers and Sons, Mothers and Daughters, good friends who haven’t spoken or have avoided each other for a long, long time. Why don’t you just pick up the phone if they are not near you, or better still, Go and see them if possible.
If I could say something that would prick the heart and conscience of just one person reading this, I would feel like its existence would be well worth it!
Hasn’t your separation gone on long enough? Some of you have even forgotten what it was all about, and why it even happened.
I don’t know why you feel the way you do but I do know that it’s not worth it.
We should treat every living person as if they would be gone from this earth within the next twenty four hours.
The person that you have a strained relationship with may very well be gone within twenty four hours. In the cemetery there will be apologies never made and forgiveness never given.
You may not see the bars and no one else may not be able to see them but you’re in prison all the same. Oh I’m not saying that you don’t ever get out or ever get away from those bars. But like a caged animal you eventually come back to your cage.
I hate for something so small to make you a little person when you could’ve been something big. Don’t you hate for something to have such a hold on you that it wounded you and rendered you helpless.
Friend I know it looks like a mountain and looks so hopeless and helpless. I would love to see the handcuffs and shackles fall off you at this very moment and you be free.
Don’t tell me that you are getting accustomed to this and you are actually enjoying it. Don’t tell me that you have wallowed in this for so long that you are actually getting comfortable in wallowing?
When Moses went before the pharaoh and asked to let God’s people go, God sent plagues to the Egyptians.
One of the plagues was frogs. Pharaoh said that he would let the people go. Moses asked him when did he want the frogs to leave. Pharaoh told Moses tomorrow.
To me this is unbelievable and unacceptable to be willing to live with the frogs another day. I wouldn’t want the frogs in my bed and in my stove another night.
When are you going to forgive,tomorrow? You are willing to sleep with unforgiveness another night and wallow in stubbornness?
I can just almost hear your thoughts. You want to know if I am asking you to forgive when you know you are in the right. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing, because you can have the right away in an automobile and still be killed.
Oh, I’m doing all right you may be saying. Oh really, whether you know it or not you are dying by degrees.
Besides this you may be killing the other person as well. Why don’t you give the gift that keeps on giving, forgiveness!
You may be praying that they will come to you and start the process of forgiving. And they may be praying that you may come to them and start the process of forgiving.
You’d better hurry or you just want to let them beat you out in being the bigger person!
If I had acid in my hand that I was going to pour on you for something you had done, my hand would be eaten up before I could get it on you. That’s what’s going on in your heart it’s gonna kill you and eat you up before it gets to him or her.
How about laying your weapon of unforgiveness down and go to that person unarmed?
When you go seek to understand first and then be understood later! I just feel like someone is going to take me up on this. When your chains fall off of you would you please email me and tell me that you’re free at encourager98@yahoo.com? I would like to celebrate with you!!
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For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
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