Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States
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I have a relative that just came from overseas, and is very nice. She always tries to help me and stuff, but I find myself feeling annoyed by her. With her being here, I don’t feel like I get enough time to myself and to do my daily prayers since I have to share my room with her and she is always around. I try not to show her that I’m really annoyed by not saying anything, but my facial expression sometimes says it all. What should I do, since I know she’s just trying to be nice and I don’t want to be rude?

"Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels" (Hebrews 13:1,2). Your relative is a guest in your home. This is a home which the Lord has provided for you, not only for your comfort, but as a means with which to serve Christ by serving others. This is an opportunity for a blessing. If there are characteristics of your relative which annoy you, either think of a kind way to set some boundaries, or let it go and have peace of mind. The little kindness you show is a prayer in action. Think about St. Pishoy, the Beloved of Christ. What an awesome title he earned by having not been annoyed by an unattractive elderly man who wanted to be carried up a hill. He could have looked upon him as a burden, but instead, he humbled himself before him without even knowing his identity. While the other monks dashed by as they heard word of an apparition of Christ on the other side of the hill, St. Pishoy, who was elderly himself, could not turn away. Thus, Christ manifested Himself upon his frail shoulders and blessed him. Until this day, this saint's body has not decayed. In the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, "I was a stranger and you took Me in" (Matthew 25:35).
13 “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy[a] Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “’who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?’”[b] But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:13-16).
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