When Friendships Get Messy
From Friend Request, the 2014 Spring Retreat
I. People in the Bible who had problems in their relationships?
II. What makes things messy in friendships?
III. Things that make problems messier.
IV. A picture of a mess.
Case study: Margaret is in charge of the human resources department at her company. About four months ago she hired one of her neighbors, Cindy, to be her secretary. For the past two months Margaret has been working on an extensive project. She has spent a large part of her time holed up in her office putting together an important presentation. Two weeks before the completion deadline she instructed her secretary to run off and collate four project summaries.
Each summary was about 150 pages with many tables, graphs, charts and graphics. When her secretary gave her the work, Margaret found that the work had not been done to her
standards.
Pages were missing, some were in backwards, the print quality was poor, graphics were grainy and some of the pages were smudged or skewed.
Margaret was not very happy with this. She had tried to be careful to give the job to her secretary in plenty of time so that she could do a thorough, high-quality job. She found herself thinking, "How unprofessional! I can’t believe she would give me such shoddy work. This is extremely unacceptable." This is not the first time Margaret has gotten unacceptable work from her secretary. Although Cindy excels in handling phone calls and interacting with the wide variety of people who come to the HR department, her typed work has been a sore spot for Margaret.
The last time Margaret talked to her secretary about such an issue Cindy told her that she thought Margaret was being too picky. Cindy had supported her argument by saying that nobody else in the office thought there was anything wrong with the work she had done.
V. Cleaning up the mess.
A.
B.
C.
How could Margaret apply this in her situation with Cindy? (Be specific.)
Believe the best.
D.
How could Margaret apply this in her situation with Cindy? (Be specific.)
Should love cover this?
E.
F.
G.
H.
VI. When the mess is cleaned up.
How could Margaret apply this in her situation with Cindy?
(Be specific.)
Go out of your way to cement restoration.
VII. When the other person doesn’t like cleanliness.
A.
B.
C.
D.
How could Margaret apply this in her situation with Cindy?
(Be specific.)
Remember the goal.
Look in the mirror - Examine my actions.
Look in the mirror – Examine my thinking.
Believe the best.
Should love cover this?
Pray.
Plan what to say.
Anticipate reactions.
Consider time and place.
Go out of your way to cement restoration.
Someone will not solve problems
