She asked a question in a general group on WhatsApp.
I responded to the question professionally.
She tagged my response and typed: "you're an idiot"
I replied: "Thanks so much, now that you point my attention to this idiotic part of me, I'll surely work on it, God bless you my dear..."
And the whole place shook. Over 118 people commented and were so surprised by my response. Of course she was terribly bashed to the extent that she left the group.
An hour later she called me to apologise for her stupidity bla bla bla.
We became friends.
Then I ended up handling her premarital counselling sessions.
Two days ago, on my birthday, she and her husband gave me a gift worth over 1.2million naira.
This was a year after she called me an idiot.
Life Lessons from this experience.
1. MATURITY: Your reaction to negative feedbacks or situations shows how mature you are.
2. CHOICE: You have the power of choice whenever anybody does or says anything offensive to you.
3. SELF CONTROL: If someone calls you anything negative and you lose yourself and begin to fight or shout or do anything terrible, you only prove them right.
4. SILENCE IS GOLDEN: It is better to keep quiet and people think you're a fool than for you to open your mouth and they confirm you're truly a fool.
5. DISCERNMENT: You cannot because the baby pooed in his bath throw the baby away with the bath water.
6. POSITIVE POWER: You have the power to win people through your maturity and composure and not through overly being more sanctimonious than the person.
7. POSITIVE IMPACT: Life is all about people. If I had responded to her negatively, I would have lost a friend forever.
8. WISDOM: There are people who are sent to you by God to help your journey in life to be worthwhile, your meeting point might be at a fighting point. Be wise, even when you're angry.
9. HUMILITY: She was humble enough to call and she apologized.
10. RECONCILIATION: Maybe there's someone you need to reconcile with today also, go ahead and do just that.
We can all get better with ourselves, with these key lessons.
