About two years ago, I started a food business in a rented space. The owner of the property was eager to help me get started and assured me that the site had excellent potential. A couple of months later, to my surprise, he opened a similar business on the same property, in direct competition with mine. My initial reaction was to be hurt by someone whom I'd trusted. I turned to God in prayer to find an answer.
I'd known this man was kind of rough and gruff. He ran a gym and I'd heard him curse people out unmercifully, even his customers. He was also charging me what I felt was unfairly high rent. After he started the competitive business, I felt like a real victim, and we didn't speak to each other for days. It was like a cold war.
I knew this kind of thinking on my part had to go. Instead of thinking of him as greedy and dishonest, I decided to think of him the way God made us all — honest, aboveboard, unselfish. I prayed to know that characteristics that hadn't come from the creator of both of us couldn't threaten me or be a part of him.
