Have you ever met a person that just rubs you the wrong way? Maybe, you’re the one that rubs the wrong way. In life, we will meet many different people. Some of them we “hit it off” right away. We have things in common and though we might of only just have met them, it seems like we have known them all our lives. On the other side of the coin, every once in a while we meet those few rare people who just seem to annoy us. We can’t stand to be around them and we just want to get away from them as fast as possible.

I was that person to my last boss. I could tell every time I came to ask a question about work or had to talk to him, his reactions and body language spoke loud in clear, he wanted to get rid of me as fast as he could. So much so, that for over a year he tried to find ways of releasing me from my job. When he couldn’t find a way to do it on performance, he waited like a hungry tiger, just waiting for the right moment to launch an attack. He did find the right moment, by finally finding a crack in my armor on a practice commonly done by most workers in the building. The extra time at lunch and breaks although it’s not right, it is done repeatedly by most of the employee ‘s I have worked with and even my previous bosses for over the last 13 years. But at this point and time, it ended my employment.

How do we handle people who we just can’t stand to be around? God expects us to love all our neighbors, not just the ones we can get along with. The truth is this. We can not love or respect these kinds of people by ourselves. There is something in us, that dark side we try to keep hidden, will prevent us from ever giving it our best shot at trying. We can try to be nice, maybe show a good gesture or two however, our stomach just still wants to turn sour. Our good intention was not so good because our heart was not in the right place.

The only way we as people can love those that rubs us wrong or if we are the ones doing the rubbing, is relying on God to give and show us Christ’s love. In other words, we have to look at them as Christ would. Knowing that they are just as much-loved by God as we are. They are just as important. God doesn’t play favorites with anyone. God doesn’t care what color skin you have, if you are tall, short, big, skinny, or even the way you wear your hair. He loves us all the same and has given us all the same gift of salvation. In order to love with God’s love, we have to make our hearts open to Christ and be willing to make changes that the Holy Spirit shows us. We need to be in prayer, asking for our attitude to be changed. We also need to ask the Lord to help us love this person with the same love that God showed us when He sent his son to die on the cross. By doing this and letting Christ work within you, your heart will be changed and you will start seeing this person in different light. You will start to discover things you never saw before in this person. You may start seeing things you have in common. Many times, these people will become your best and closest friend. Loving with Christ’s love may not change the person your rubbing wrong, but it will change you. You can still show love, understanding, compassion, forgiveness, even though they still dislike you.

We can not make everyone to love us, but we can show Christ’s love to everyone.