I see stuff like this all the time on Facebook:

If you don’t like what I post, then it’s your problem. Just delete me if you don’t like what I write because I’m just being myself, and you should go away if you can’t handle it.

Or I see and hear things like:

If I can’t be myself on Facebook, it’s ridiculous. I wish people at church would stop trying to change me. I am who I am, and if they can’t handle it, they shouldn’t be friends with me on Facebook. It’s their problem if they can’t take me for who I am.

To an extent, I can see where these attitudes are coming from. There are people I know, some even pretty close to me, who assume ulterior motives to nearly every lesson I give and every post I write. They have good foundation for their biases but have never come to the realization that I’ve grown and changed since they formed their opinions. They assume the worst of me, and there’s nothing I can do about it outside of trying to keep my conduct and attitudes as good as possible.

On the other hand, we need to remember what the scriptures say about the examples we set to our fellow Christians and to the world around us. Paul, in Romans 15, says we should bear others’ burdens, and he goes on in I Corinthians 8 to warn us against wounding the consciences of our fellow Christians. If I’m causing a brother or sister to stumble, instead of digging my heels in, I need to evaluate myself. We’re to be living peaceably with those around us, and an “it’s your problem” attitude is anything but peaceable.

It’s easy to have knee-jerk reactions. It’s easy to see faults in those who share their concerns with us. It’s easy to push back. As Christians, we should be striving for something better. In this case, it’s a little bit of self-evaluation, a little bit of self-adjustment. We have to ask ourselves what’s more important – preserving our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ or our pride.