The Post About Pretty - Part 1

I generally avoid conflict. The people pleaser that resides full time in my lovely mother has a summer home inside of me. I have coined a term: "wrap it in pretty." The concept is simple - try to communicate things in such a manner that drama is almost impossible to occur. I have developed it into an art form, with much success. My co-worker calls this being "Southern." Of course, she means it as a negative, because we can find ourselves wrapping things in so much pretty that we can no longer discern the real message. We sacrifice the truth in order to keep feelers cozy and unharmed. The downside to avoiding conflict.

To me, being "Southern" or just plain rude, is sharing the conflict with everyone but the person directly involved. We wrap it in "pray for me" or "I'm confused about..." when really we are just assembling our front line for when the real battle begins. It's all about having people on your side. And know that I'm as guilty as the next in using this military technique. However, God is pretty clear on this one: 'If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, JUST BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.' Matthew 18:15

You can't argue with God who designed or Bill Withers who wrote or Will Smith who sampled - "Just the two of us, we can make it if we try..."