Advice Column

Today's challenge...............
Have you ever faced a difficult situation when you had to choose between sorting it out yourself, or asking someone else for an easy fix? What did you choose -- and would you make the same choice today?

I didn't have a situation where I got an easy fix (I think that's what I was hoping for), but I did have a situation where I sought advice.
I was having a problem with a gal from church and since I HATE confrontation of any kind, I was just kind of shutting down in her presence. It just felt like she was sucking the life right out of me and instead of dealing with the problem, I avoided it.
I sought advice from two different trusted people and instead of lifting the problem off my shoulders, they both said I needed to have a conversation with her and deal with it. UGH!! This was a conversation I did not want to have.

I must confess that I didn't  handle it immediately, but the next Sunday during a Bible study on prayer that we are having before church service, God stopped tapping me on the shoulder and instead chose to holler in my ear. The leader of the study talked on the fact that we are told in the Bible that if we come to the Lord with our offering with something between a brother, we should go and take care of the situation and then return with our offering to the Lord.
All right already!
I got up right in the middle of study and went immediately to go have a talk with her. It went so well! I had no idea what I was going to say, but the Lord stepped up for me (Big Surprise) and gave me the right words. The situation was completely and instantly solved. I'm so thankful , because I am around her quite a bit and having the bad feeling between us was SO uncomfortable.

So in answer to the question--I did try and get outside help, but they didn't let me get away with avoiding my problem, by basically saying "Put on your big girl pants and deal with it." In the past I literally would have just avoided the entire thing,and hurt her feelings by my attitude, acting in a less than Christian way. In the end, I'm so glad that I was forced into dealing with it. It gave me a boost to my confidence in what I am able to step up and do with the Lord's help and made my interactions with this person easy and comfortable.