What kind of person am I?

(edited, as requested)

I'm not very nice to my students sometimes. *frown*

But they forgive me.

If only I could so easily forgive them for the small things that agitate me and make it hard for me to enjoy my time with them.

I had a great, fun group of students these past 10 weeks. They loved to talk with each other in class, gathered outside after to talk more, and were just great people. But I just let the little problems bug me and ruin our days sometimes. The heat was difficult and I was not sympathetic. I need to “let things roll off my back” more, but I seem to hold onto little things. A few of the students came in late and I always made some comment or gave them some look of disapproval. It's a small thing, but it's important and some of the students never quite “get it”.

B/c it's summer and this last course was difficult, most/all of these students will take a break and then come back to our courses in the fall (I hope) Maybe that's a good thing. I want to encourage them to come to our once-a-week Conversation course on Saturday nights and then hang out sometimes after that class. I hope they like the idea.

Tuesday night was our final class and I wanted it to be really nice. Yet from the beginning, I was upset. See...the new air conditioners weren't working yet b/c the electrician hadn't finished his work. I had been looking forward to using them and having a nice, comfortable class. The students were thinking the same thing. So it was a big disappointment when we couldn't do that. They let it go. I didn't. *sigh* It's one of those frustrating things that I've never gotten accustomed to in Egypt – work of low quality, unreliable schedule/appointments, people not respecting time.

But...even after all that, we had an OK class and then we went out for a simple dinner and cold drinks after class to celebrate and to see the 2^nd half of the Brazil/Ghana World Cup match. Not much of a match, but nice to all be together.

Then I came back to my neighborhood to see people at church and then continue a long conversation with a friend. I've known this friend for a long time, but we really don't have anything in common. Anytime we talk about life/religion/politics, we clash and neither of us really changes our view of things.

Yesterday, the best way I can describe our talk is to say that it was about “personal safety and violence”. To make a long story short, a strange man came to my friend's apartment at midnight on Monday and talked with my friend's adult sister and wife while my friend was in the bathroom. The man left, but then my friend chased after him with a gun and then hit him repeatedly.

*frown*

My friend's view is that he did this to teach the man a lesson and now the man will never come to the building again to bother people. My friend thinks that the man was knocking on every door to see if people were home and then was going to break in and rob apartments if he found them vacant.

Maybe this was the case, but I tried to get my friend to see past this and to see that there were other options in this situation and things that can be done to protect yourself. He has a peekhole in his door so that you can look out to see who is at your door. But his sister didn't use it. He has a chain on the door too, but she just opened the door. His explanation is that she was expecting her husband to return, so she was opening the door for him in a natural way. I tried to get my friend to see that it's each person's responsibility to do these basic things to protect themselves.

I'm not sure he was convinced.

At one point, my friend said “you sound like a monk”. (this has been a comment from him in the past, also)

My response: “thank you”.

I've been thinking about this conversation and about why I'm friends with this person. I'm praying for God to work on both our hearts, that I may learn patience and perspective from him and the he sees a way to peace and satisfaction. Please pray for this.