Conviction: declaration that a person is guilty of an offense.
Cringe: react with discomfort and/or disdain.
Several weeks ago The Lord convicted me of something that I am calling ‘The Cringe’. You know it; when someone says or does something and it evokes an emotion out of you that is not positive.
For me when I hear a person speaking things I believe to be false or things that in my opinion are beyond ridiculous I tend to ‘cringe’ on the inside. I am certain we have all experienced that on MULTIPLE occasions throughout our life.
Well, The Lord has now highlighted that to me and has convicted me to pray for the person that causes me to ‘cringe’. It hasn’t stopped me from cringing yet; however, each time it happens it is my ‘indicator’ to pray for that person(s).
In the last several weeks there have been days I haven’t cringed at all; however, there have also been times I have cringed multiple times in a day.
Here is some insight and wisdom for you. The days I did not go on social media or watch television were the days I did not ‘cringe’! The days I choose to be online or viewing television were 100% the days I cringed!!!
Perhaps this little snippet of knowledge will incline you to ‘pray when you cringe’ OR to reduce your screen time! Both are a good thing:)
I’m not saying people who make us cringe are our ‘enemies’ per se; however, scripturally speaking they could be viewed that way.
Matthew 5:44
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”
Enemy: a person who feels hatred for, fosters harmful designs against, or engages in antagonistic activities against another; an adversary or opponent.
Persecute: to annoy or trouble persistently
My hopes in sharing this is for more of us to have ‘The Cringe’ be an indicator to pray for those that cause you to ‘cringe’. I suppose instead of ‘indicator’ I could of said ‘trigger’ and my guess is the word ‘trigger’ would have caused some to ‘cringe’ and pray for me:)
Honestly, our society gets bent out of shape too easily and allows things that people say and do to disturb their peace. I have definitely allowed that to happen throughout my life. Let’s STOP that! The actions of others only disrupts our peace when we allow it to.
I really do believe PRAYER is where we should begin and end when it comes to ‘The Cringe’.
Maybe I’ll make t-shirts😂
