Haven't you ever had people around you—family, friends, coworkers—who seem to have a special radar, because every time you open your mouth, they tend to give you a hard time when you share an opinion or make a comment?
After so many times, you decide to keep quiet—either for the sake of your mental health or so you can throw a shoe at that person or use whatever weapon of mass destruction you have on hand.
In the end, you choose your mental health, look him in the eyes, flash a smile, and move on.
But let's be honest: diplomacy based purely on restraint has an expiration date. It might last a few days. By the third day, you'll send it packing with whatever courtesy you have left in you.
How can you come out on top after three, thirty, or three hundred days have passed?
By offering this situation to the Lord on behalf of that person who is disturbing your peace (probably unintentionally—just as you might do the same at other times), as St. Josemaría would say in point 173 of *The Way*: «That well-chosen word, the joke that didn’t come out of your mouth; the kind smile for the one who annoys you; that silence in the face of an unjust accusation; your patient listening to the tedious and the impertinent; overlooking, day after day, the petty and vulgar little things in those who live with you… This, done with perseverance, is truly solid inner mortification.»
By offering that effort to the Lord and transforming it into an act of charity toward the person who is bothering you, the «smile» ceases to be a mask of self-control and becomes a true source of inner peace; and above all, with God’s grace, you will be able to love that person just as they are.
Father of six daughters. Speech-Language Pathologist and child of deaf adults (CODA). My personal and professional stories are intertwined in a single calling: to break down communication barriers.
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