A bit stunned I was to come across words written by someone that Gaylon and I had not seen in at least thirty-five years. I wish I had never seen those words, and I am sure the writer never thought I would see them. The words were written just a month ago, and were a bashing of my husband when he was the person’s pastor thirty-five years ago.  That goes with the territory, and I get that. No pastor/leader will be loved or liked by everyone. I totally get that.

My first thoughts were, “How dare he write this! The nerve of him calling out my husband by name! Who does he think he is saying these things which are not even true?  Thirty-five years later, dude? Give it a rest!” In my mind, my claws began to come out, and I was ready to give him a piece of my mind. The more I read, and re-read, the madder I became! I was so very close to writing him my opinion. After all, MY opinion is so important and needed!

Thank God I did nothing at the moment, and pondered it throughout the day. I did not call my best friend and vent. I did not discuss it with others. I did not try to pull others to my side. I did not try to get them to dislike the person with me. (At that moment I had enough dislike for everyone!) My flesh wanted to do all of these.

As evening time came, God had softened my heart, and God also spoke to me about not letting this become a seed in my heart, that would produce a crop of bitterness.
Hebrews 12:15 states, “Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.”  Allowing bitterness to take root is a dangerous thing, so dangerous that God tells us that it will cause us trouble in life, and corrupt others in the process.

It’s easy to forget that we have choices when we’re offended. We can hold on to hurt, continue to rehearse hurt, or we can surrender our hurt.

Life is hard enough without the baggage of bitterness. In the words of Elsa, “Let it go.”