Overcoming Conflict

Conflict is inevitable. Everyone has experianced conflict at one time or another in their lifetime. Conflict is an honest dissagreement between both sides because they both believe they are right. This creates a problem in relationships. We all react to things differently, percieve things differently because we all come from different backgrounds, differant beliefs. "Causes" and "Effects" are different which causes differances of opinion in relationships and families.

People carry around emotional baggage because they aren't willing to deal with the source of it and resolve it. They suppress it (refuse to deal with it), repress it (deny it's even there) or blame someone else for it. You can't live in conflict with another without having a divided mind. One against the other. Where does conflict stem from? Unresolved trust issues, unresolved anger issues, unresolved jealousy issues etc;. Issues that have effected our belief system. How we believe and how we percieve.

Emotions can be compromized due to old baggage/unresolved issues. We may need to work on putting our emotions back into their proper perspective, reconstruct our emotions, because they have been damaged by past experiances, therefore they can cause major conflicts towards the people we love most because these issues have never been resolved. Stuffing them down, hiding them, ignoring them hoping they might just go away, but they are still there waving their ugly head.

You will never be truly happy carrying around unresolved issues/old baggage. This will destroy any and all relationships. This is called excess baggage. Not healthy. You cannot avoid conflict with emotional baggage. You cannot have a constructive relationship with emotional baggage. Emotional baggage brings little hope to your future. It will hold you in the past. Hold you like a prisoner in your own mind.

So how do we avoid conflict. As i mentioned in my hub "Everything in Balance", that no two people are exactly in the same place in life, we can be more gentle and forgiving therefore we are more equipt to avoid conflict. God says: "Live in peace with eachother, and we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong but always try to be kind to eachother and to everyone else" 1 Thess 5:13-15. "Finally, all of you, live in harmony with eachother; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble, do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good" 1 Peter 8-11.

Resolving conflict brings more understanding, forgiveness, builds love and trust. Gives us peace, joy and hope and complete happiness beyond our wildest dreams! Love becomes stronger than failures. Life becomes worth living because we are at peace with ourselves so in turn we can be at peace with others. We are to grow in the midst of our troubles. That is why trials are put before us. So that we can learn the meaning of love, unity, patience and forgiveness. All the things that bring peace to our soul. Great things come from resolving conflict.

Don't allow conflict to ruin your life. Destroy what is meaningful to you. If there is something you can do to prevent it...seek it out! Conflict can grow to extreme measures. Conflict can destroy all your hopes and dreams. God wants us to live in harmony therefore we must try and avoid conflict.