Compassionate people really dislike hurting other people’s feelings. In fact, some compassionate folks that I know would sacrifice their own lives just so that they could spare somebody else’s feelings. I know of one such person that has invested a lot of time and effort into a something that they are not sure that they want to be a part of, but refuse to remove themselves from the situation because they cannot bear to hurt the other people involved.

It’s a tough situation. But, sometimes we have to do the hard things in order to move towards the easier things. For instance, we have to do the schoolwork to meet the graduation requirements (the hard things) so that we can sail across that stage and get our diploma (the easy thing). It does not take much work to walk across a stage, shake a hand and receive a diploma (at least for most of us). But, it does take a heavy amount of effort to get to that point – and a lot of money too if we are talking advanced degrees.

When you realize that you are in a situation where you do not desire to be, and you have prayed about the situation and God tells you to move out of that situation, be obedient. When you know the direction that God has ordained, but you refuse to move, or are slow to move, because you are trying to spare someone’s feelings or a group of people’s feelings, it’s time to do some self-examination. It’s time for a reality check.

If God required your life right now, would you be comfortable standing before Him and telling Him the reason for your disobedience. It would go something like this…Lord, I know that I disobeyed you – but it was because I was trying to spare this person’s feelings. So, in order not to hurt them, I hurt You by my disobedience.

Somehow, I don’t think God is going to be “all-good” with that. When we disobey God, we put our desires before His, we put other people before Him and we put our knowledge/our way before His. And, well, we know that this is not the proper order. If we are going to be His children, then we must act like children and listen to our Heavenly Father.

God knows best. Stop dilly-dallying and messing around. If He told you to do it, rip that band-aid off!