Choose Not to Argue

Have you ever met someone who tries to tell you something you know to be false? 

For example, many years ago, I worked with a woman in northcentral Oklahoma who was from northeastern Oklahoma. I am from southeastern Oklahoma and mentioned the mountains there. She said, “No, there are no mountains in Oklahoma.” I was young, I tried to argue for a moment, but she wouldn’t budge. I shut my mouth and went home frustrated.

Best to simply shake your head and choose not to argue.

Several years after this, we moved from southeastern Oklahoma, where that summer had weather over 100 degrees for a couple of months with humidity of about 50%. It made us grateful for air conditioning. When we got to the new place, Western Maryland, it was having a heat wave of 88-90 with about 50% humidity. I met a man who was complaining about the heat. I made the mistake of saying the heat was nothing compared to where I had moved from. He said, “Yeah, but it’s a dry heat.” I said, “No, it’s not.” He continued, I was wiser this time and shut my mouth.

One house we lived in had a pool. My girls swam with our dogs. One of them got out of the yard while I was drying her off. I said to the neighbor standing in his driveway, “She was swimming.” He said, “Oh, no! Dogs can’t swim!” This time, I didn’t even disagree, but I did wonder what Canela had been doing as she went from end to end in the pool.

Choose not to argue.

Have you met frustrating people like this? Been in situations where you wanted to straighten someone out? They can steal your joy for a moment; don’t let them. Choose not to argue and just shake your head. Then maybe you can laugh. Let God take care of the rest.