Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm Bill Crowder, and I called our devotion a Christ-like response.

George was working on a construction job in the heat of the Carolina summer sun

when someone living nearby walked

into the yard where he was working. Clearly angry, the neighbor began to curse and criticize everything

about the project and how it was being done. George received the verbal blows without response

until the angry neighbor stopped yelling.

Then he gently responded,

You've had a really hard day, haven't you?

Suddenly the angry neighbor's face softened, his head dipped, and he said,

I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you.

George's kindness had diffused the neighbor's wrath.

There are times when we want to strike back.

To give abuse for abuse and insult for insult.

What George modeled instead was a kindness seen most perfectly

in the way Jesus bore the consequences of our sins.

1 Peter chapter 2 verse 23 says,

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate.

When he suffered, he made no threats.

Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

All of us will face moments when we're misunderstood,

misrepresented, or attacked. We may want to respond in kind, but the heart of Jesus

...