When I get my hands on you I'm so going to.......

 Remember when I said I was always amazed at God's perfect timing?  Well here is the post I wrote last week, to my surprise our Pastor's message the following Sunday dealt with the same topic...WOW! :-)  So, as promised, here you go:

Now you did it - I can’t believe you would go there. What’s the deal? Oh man, I’m going to get you! And when I do, I’m gonna hug you! LOL Not quite what you had in mind? I’ve never been a revengeful person - although I do entertain the occasional 'moment righting' scenario. My heart just isn’t into that though to follow thru - I want justice for sure but is revenge always justice? I want things to be righted that’s for sure, but not at the expensive of someone else’s pain or sadness or embarrassment. I know plenty of people that enjoy revenge, in face I think secretly they have a 3 ring spiral binder stacked full of ideas for potential trespasses - I’m steering clear of their bad side!

Sometimes when we get hurt, physically or emotionally, the easiest thing to do is to take revenge on the one that is responsible for inflicting the pain. When we think we are treated unfairly the knee-jerk reaction is to push back. We need to follow the way of Christ and not give in to paying back others. Let the Lord handle it because he says “it is mine to avenge”. We are directed to love our enemies and to pray for them.  Sometimes this is very easy to do and other times it takes work depending on the newness and severity of the pain. Trust that the Lord can and will make all people accountable for their actions.

I find that from my past experience, when I did speak out with hurtful words against those that have slighted me, lied about me, ignored me, took from me or kept from me, that I didn’t feel better. I felt worse because it didn’t change the original hurtful act…it just added another hurtful act upon another, yet this time at my own hands. I now try to take pause, take a step back and take a deep breath - sometimes that deep breath has to last for a day! LOL But when I come back to the situation with a clear head, a slightly mended heart and a spot where my emotions aren’t so charged, I always seem to access the situation differently and am glad that I took some time to chill. Sometimes when I chilax, things don’t seem as bad as they did - sometimes they even can seem pointless. I've learned to change how I allow people to affect me, I've changed what I will accept from folks as acceptable behavior and I will put people on notice kindly that basically their "roll over" Kim minutes have expired.  But what I’ve also learned is that I have no need to participate in the “game” and I’m forever happier because of this - like my good friend Nina says, “Be a duck”, she let’s it roll off her back”. QUACK, QUACK NINA, great advice!

The other day, I had a chance to put my patience to the test again and see if I could keep my cool (and sanity) - I had the choice to be “fleshly” or be an adult! We live in the back of the subdivision in a cul-de-sac, so parking can be squinchy, but just fine and dandy if everyone is respectful of each other. There is one family that really is sweet, but in their own selfish world and honestly just isn’t thinking of the rest of the planet when it comes to ANYTHING. Their 22 old-ish daughter arrived home one night around 3am, which is nothing new - they come and go at all hours of the night, booming their bass loud enough to wake up my children, tossing beer cans into the neighbor’s yards and bushes - not really a great scenario but we‘ve learned adjust and to get a long. Well, this particular night she parked her car like...a moron - again nothing new, something I’ve seen them do many times, but usually it’s just for 5/10 minutes to run back into the house for something. But no, this time it was for the entire night and morning. Our street has a circle island/dead end, so you circle the island in front of our homes and it shoots you back out the other direction to go back out into the sub. So her car was parked 3 feet from the curb of the circle, in front of all of the neighbors houses (not her house of course) they‘re the last house on the block. So 3 feet from the curb and angled out all crooked…so yes, she was blocking 2 driveways and one side of the street so folks couldn’t make the turn around the circle, they’d have to back up and drive the wrong way to exit their driveways or get out of the sub.

We had to go over our curb to avoid hitting her car (it was 3 feet from our drive way). How crazy, how insane - I was upset - I wanted to redecorate her car with some sunshiny eggs. Not the best idea, but I couldn’t stand that she’d be so clueless, surly she needs a wake up call. Of course I could call the police, but of course she’d be gone within the next half hour or so, so what was the point. A lesson? To right a wrong? To seek revenge? Again, why? Was I so hurt and inconvenienced that the only thing to ease my discomfort would be to inflict discomfort? No, not at all. Instead we are to bless our enemies, pray for those that hurt us, ignore us and wrong us. What would I gain by stooping to this level, to avenge my anger would accomplish nothing good. Instead, I took a step back - thought about her as a human. I thought about how her parents let her run a muck because it was the easy thing to do - how she had been shown wealth and lavished with gifts, but not shown attention or lavished with love.

"Be kind to each other in your homes. Be kind to those who surround you. I prefer that you make mistakes in kindness rather than that you work miracles in unkindness. Often just for one word, one look, one quick action, and darkness fills the heart of the one we love". -- Mother Teresa

At this moment I felt ashamed that I would even for a second entertain the thought to avenge such a petty act with another petty act. Sure, this isn’t the first time, these sorts of things add up over years (like mounds and mounds of trash just tossed randomly at the curb for a week, years of their dogs wandering stray and barking at us in our own yard, one of them obviously drunk and taking out our newly planted tree with their car going up and over the curb - at least they could have discarded the evidence LOL). So this wasn’t the first time or last time stuff like this has happened, but was the first time (I can remember) that I had a thought of real payback cross my mind to take because of their actions.

Let's all get along - hands are made for
helping, not hurting!!!


What was I to gain, why did I deserve to gain anything! Why, for a split moment, had I entertained revenge in my mind?  I believe it's because flesh does that - the divine does not. Because flesh is weak - the divine is mighty. Because flesh gets mad and spiteful and wants to deliver pain where in contrast the divine gives love. Divine won out, flesh was broken and my heart was happy. I’ve never gained anything from revenge, of course again I’ve never been a fan of it - but all I’ve ever seen revenge bring is more pain, more suffering, more anger and more revenge. What I’ve seen of forgiveness and love is more forgiveness, more love, more happiness, more fresh starts, more peace and…..more love! 

"If we have no peace, it is because we forget we belong to each other". -- Mother Teresa

Romans 12:19-21  Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:14  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

Matthew 5:43-44  “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Luke 6:31  Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Hey you kids, don't you park that thing there! LOL