How Not to BRACE Yourself!

Daylight savings time is when you are advised to take out the old batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and replace them with new ones.  It reminds me of Ephesians 4:31 where we told to remove from our life some old things, and replace them with new things. 

Take out of your attitude and actions these things using the acronym BRACE:

Bitterness
Bitterness starts inside us from some sort of sin (by us or to us, which is most common) and comes out through our bad attitude. We have let our happiness and our demeanor be affected by some outside occurrence, which is wrong. We let that occurrence get right to our pride and self-centeredness, both of which Christians shouldn’t have.

Bitterness is the opposite of sweet; it’s sour and acidic, and you allow it to hurt you as you blame others. Hebrews 12:15 says when you allow bitterness to take root, you miss out on God’s grace to you. It’s like poison you take yourself, hoping others will get hurt.

Revenge
Wrath is another word for revenge. When you are harmed, you “get back at them”. This is the opposite of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:39 to “turn the other cheek.” Proverbs 11:23 says it’s expected of wicked people, but wrong for a Christian. Wrath includes not forgiving someone who has wronged you…it’s the next step from bitterness.

We are not to get even when others hurt us. “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord” in Romans 12:19 so trust He will, and you can then take that off of your plate.

Anger
Most anger is sinful, but not all of it. The way you can tell is sinful anger is rooted in pride.

The anger we are to put off of us is rooted in pride such as our feelings were hurt, or we didn’t get our way. That type of anger hurts people, ourselves, and hurts people’s view of Christ in us.

Clamor
Clamor means loud quarreling or yelling. Yelling belittles others and puffs you up (pride), and usually causes harm. Disagreements that turn to shouting are to be put off of you like trash.

When your voice raises, possibly as a result of the previous three, it’s clamoring, and time to stop and walk away. You will probably be respected more doing that, than continuing to yell at someone.

Evil speaking
Christians are to never engage in speaking evil of others. Your Mom’s saying is helpful here: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Evil means morally reprehensible, and with the intent to degrade or cause harm.  Slander is what some Bible versions use.  Titus 3:2 says “ to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all.”

Evil speaking also includes lying Ephesians 4:25, filthy language unbecoming of a Christian Ephesians 4:29. Also, Ephesians 5:4 mentions foolish talking that makes you sound stupid, and “coarse jesting” which mean jokes that harm or degrade someone.

Replace BRACE with GRACE.   Grace includes kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness. Give it a try, you will be surprised how well other people, including your co-workers, vendors, and even customers respond favorably!

Replacing BRACE with GRACE is hard, let’s not kid ourselves, however…the more you do it, the easier it gets. When you do, you don’t have to worry or feel bad later (know what I mean?!). It’s like making the effort to change the batteries in your smoke alarms, so you can have a peace of mind they are OK for a while.