Hi Everyone,
Someone who follows me on
Facebook, NP, asked me to write about holding grudges so here's my take.
We've all been there.
There's that one person who has really done something wrong to us and we
want to get back at them so bad we can taste it. We dream of all the
witty things we would say or how we would act given the chance and we think about
how good it would feel to finally let that person have it. I mean we
deserve to get even with someone if they have done something wrong to us.
If you are a Christian you have to turn the other cheek once but after
that you are out of cheeks and it's time for payback. Now many times we
don't pay the other person back we just think about it.
But even when we do pay
them back, we often feel worse for what we did to them than we did before we
did it. One time I was in a movie theater with my brother and his wife.
We were in line to get popcorn and all the things you need to see a movie
and there was this guy who said that my sister-in-law didn't pay for her hot
dog when I knew she did. I don't remember how it started but he said
something that was kind of insulting and I didn't wait to hold a grudge, I let
him have it right there. I said some really mean stuff that cut him down
to size. Then we went into the movie theater and I felt so terribly awful
for saying the things I said. See my mom always told me that two wrongs
don't make a right. So what did I do? I went back and found the kid
and apologized profusely for my words.
So now let's deal with what
happens when we hold grudges? First of all, the real person it hurts is
us. Grudges don't normally hurt the other person because they normally
don't even know about them. But what they do to our insides is pretty
bad. They make us feel all sorts of negative emotions that really can do
us harm. If we are not careful, we can spend a lot of time mediating on
all the negative stuff which is really bad for us.
But also did you know that
when we hold things against other people that it will hinder our prayers to
God. The bible tells us to forgive others so God can forgive us.
That's pretty heavy stuff. So I can hear some of you saying,
"That all sounds good but I've tried everything and I just can't let go of
this grudge." Well that's not true. Did you know that there is
a lot of power in the words we say. When we go around saying things like
I can't let go, we only make it harder to actually let go.
The answer to this lies in
that hole under our mouth. If you want to let go of a grudge, make a
conscious faith decision to let go. Then say out of your mouth, "I
let go of that grudge that I have against so and so." At that point,
it's a done deal. So what do you do three minutes later when that
negative feeling starts coming up? You say to it, "Nope I have
already let go of the grudge and forgiven that person." If you keep
saying that, eventually it will become a reality in your life and you can finally
be free of the grudge. Remember, if you are a Christian, you got saved by
faith. You can let go of a grudge by faith as well. When you do,
God will help you let go.
That's another Opinion of
the Minion