In Week Two of YOUR MOVE, we spoke about how when our families get into fighting feuds, it’s our move to love them.

Your Move – Week 2

Is there something in your life that really brings out your competitive spirit? Maybe you’re an athlete and simply showing up to play the game gets your competitive fire going. Or maybe getting good grades is you’re thing, and so you work hard to stay at the top of your class. Or maybe you’re just one of those people whose competitive spirit is so strong that you’re able to turn anything into a competition (you know who you are!). The truth is there’s probably a little competitive spirit in all of us. At the end of the day, the point of competition is to declare a winner (and who doesn’t like to win?). 

Sometimes conflict can feel a little bit like a competition. When we find ourselves at odds with someone close to us, we start making moves to prove our point. They make a move, and we make one to one-up them. On and on it goes. And before we know it, we aren’t interested in fighting for the relationship; we’re only interested in fighting to win.

If that sounds exhausting, it’s because it is! When we treat conflict like a competition, our relationships are bound to suffer. And in the end, no one actually walks away a winner.

While we can’t control the fact that we’re going to find ourselves in conflict from time to time, we can control what we do when we’re in it. What if the first move we made wasn’t a move to win, but instead a move to resolve the conflict? Definitely easier said than done, right? The good news is Jesus laid out exactly what we can do to make that move in the book of Luke. Check it out:

Do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke 6:31 NIV).

Treat others the way you want to be treated—even in conflict! The next time you’re faced with a fight, ask yourself how you’d want the other person to respond to you. And then make the move to respond to them that same way! You’ll be surprised at how quickly the fires of conflict are extinguished when you make the move to treat the other person the way you’d want to be treated.

Is there someone you’re at odds with right now? What move can you make to treat them the way you’d want to be treated?