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In my working life part of my role is moderating a couple of industry based chat forums – in most cases that’s ok. It keeps the spammers out and helps keep the forums on track. But periodically we’ll have people post comments that upset others on the forums and whilst those posting might not be deliberately malicious, their posts can be perceived in that way. Some people reading can be very fragile and take every post as directed at them, others are more resilient and only take on board what they want to.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been trying hard to keep things running as smoothly as possible at one of those forums but it’s not been easy. The person posting feels their feelings have been hurt and many others feel they’ve been hurt by that person’s posts. I’ve tried to close the topic and get people to move on but they keep revisiting the topic. Consequently I get people emailing me privately or phoning me to tell me ‘their side’ and how they perceive things.

The saga was continuing yesterday and I prayed a silent prayer to our God asking Him what I should do. A short time later, an email came – one that I receive daily, although they don’t always come at the same time of day. It’s a daily bible reading.

I read that and thanked God for hearing me and realised that sometimes there isn’t a straight answer, but that I must just keep on doing what I’ve been doing – a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, and not take anyone’s side but just be there for them. Because that is my ministry – to be there for those people.

Thanks for the reminder Rebekka (the lady who sends the readings out daily). KMT