It is not for you to have the first word nor the last word. It is not for you to be right. It is not for you to win. It is for you to love. Turning the other cheek does not mean you are walked on. It means you stand on a higher rung. The other person is not to dictate your response. You are not to give him that power.

If he is unkind or unthinking, all the more reason for you to be kind and thoughtful. If another person is in a hurting mode – all the more reason for you not to be. Enough of smallness. Come from a place of peace.

Do not think you are giving up something when you put anger aside. You don’t have to vent it. You don’t have to have it in the first place. Other people are playing their role. You do not have to play theirs. They may not be as wise as you. If that is the case, then all the more reason for you to be wise. It is not wise to try to prove yourself right and someone else wrong. It is also not necessary.

When I suggest that you rise to the occasion, I do not mean that you rise to anger or defense. That is not rising. That is lowering. I suggest that you look at the situation from a little distance, thus removing yourself from it.

If you were a teacher, and two children were fighting. One tells you: “He called my mother a name.” You tell him that no one has power over him unless he gives it away. No one has the right to insult him or his mother, of course, but insult doesn’t have the right to overtake common sense either.

Beloveds, in a cock-fight, the innocent creatures are not given a choice. But you are not a rooster. Why then would you behave like one? You have a choice. You can walk away. And that is the least you can do.

Have you not fed the flames of argument? What is the advantage? What do you gain? And when it is all done, what do you have?

It is a silly thing to be a winner of an argument. Be a winner of love instead. Earn the winning title by giving love. If you cannot give it near, then give it afar. Do you really want to be known as One Who Tried to Win Every Argument or would you rather be known as One Who Sought to Come from Love?

Be gentle with one another. These are My children you are dealing with.

There is no justification for you to be less than love. A thousand reasons do not give you cause. But, of course, hurtful words and hurtful actions are justified a thousand times and a thousand ways, and all to no avail.

For every argument you win, you have lost an opportunity to give love. That means you lost. Turning the other cheek means to be wise and to get out of automatic. It means to be an agent of love.

When you retaliate, you are an agent of fear and you’re ego’s pawn. Would you not prefer to be an agent of change, an agent of making a difference, an agent of wisdom? Would you rather be one who returns hate or one who turns hate around? Would you rather be a nourisher of hate or an abandoner of it? Would you not like to be a lover of mankind, a giver of peace, an artist of a larger view? Someone else may be inadequate, but that does not mean you have to be.

Paint a different picture of yourself. Erase the old one. You are the painter of your life. Yes, well, how do you choose to paint yourself?