{"id":12880,"date":"2025-07-29T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/?p=12880"},"modified":"2025-07-03T08:37:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T13:37:23","slug":"give-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/29\/give-blessings\/","title":{"rendered":"Give Blessings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One-minute read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Welcome-july-instagram-post-watercolor-background-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12881\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Welcome-july-instagram-post-watercolor-background-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Welcome-july-instagram-post-watercolor-background-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Welcome-july-instagram-post-watercolor-background-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Welcome-july-instagram-post-watercolor-background-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Welcome-july-instagram-post-watercolor-background-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Welcome-july-instagram-post-watercolor-background.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Driving down the road last week, a car cut in front of me, almost hitting my bumper.\u00a0 The driver didn\u2019t have a care in the world and thought they did nothing wrong.\u00a0 Instant anger boiled up inside of me at their selfish, unsafe acts, and I wanted to retaliate. \u00a0At unexpected moments like this, I can quickly lose my connection with the Lord and let my human nature take control.\u00a0 I\u2019ve learned to take a deep breath, which helps control my actions and refocus my thoughts.\u00a0 Doing a little preaching to myself helps me get back on track.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGod loves them, and He expects me to love them. Jesus died for them, too.\u00a0 You\u2019ve cut people off in traffic before.\u00a0 We\u2019re all sinners in need of grace.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Thoughts like these help me regain my composure and avoid impulsive actions, but it takes work and intention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In life, we will have evil things done to us, whether intentionally or not.\u00a0 The Lord has clear instructions on how we should respond.\u00a0 Instead of repaying them with evil, God wants us to bless them.\u00a0 For me, I start by praying, which helps me take the focus off me and put it on the Savior.\u00a0 Remembering what Christ did for me motivates me to give grace to others.\u00a0 We all share an imperfect nature that requires grace.\u00a0 Taking the plank out of our eye helps us forgive the splinter in someone else\u2019s.\u00a0 Once we gain a new perspective, we can find a way to bless them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Journal Question:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">How do you repay evil with a blessing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Random Act of Kindness:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">How can you bless someone who wronged you today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One-minute read. Driving down the road last week, a car cut in front of me, almost hitting my bumper.\u00a0 The driver didn\u2019t have a care in the world and thought they did nothing wrong.\u00a0 Instant anger boiled up inside of me at their selfish, unsafe acts, and I wanted to retaliate. \u00a0At unexpected moments like&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/29\/give-blessings\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Give Blessings<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12883,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12880\/revisions\/12883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}