We’ve all been there before-our feelings get hurt by the people who we love the most. And when this happens, we are so hurt that the only thing that we know to do is to retaliate with a just-as-nasty comeback, whether it be with our words or actions. It seems like its human nature to ‘get back’ at those who hurt us with a need for revenge. But, I’ll let you in on a little secret-it never works. Getting revenge is never the answer, in fact, it causes more harm than good.

Sometimes, the people who have hurt you probably didn’t even mean to! I can speak from experience on this- I am one of the most sensitive people, and when someone says something to me that comes across as being hurtful, I completely shut down-I cry, get upset, and refuse to talk for a period of time. And the funny thing is that no one else sees a reason for my actions. I, too, have a history of lashing you at the people who I love the most, because they said something to me that had hurt my feelings, even when they didn’t mean to, and it’s not fun at all.

I saw an image a while back on the internet that really spoke to me. I was of a couple who had apparently just had a fight, and were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, facing away from each other. Their brains, as crazy as this sounds, were at battle with each other outside of their heads, while their hearts, also outside of their chests, were reaching desperately for each other. I know that this sounds a little wild, but here it is:

My point is, don’t ruin wonderful relationships with people that you love, just because of something that they said that might have hurt your feelings. They may have not even meant to, and even if they did, what does getting revenge solve? Nothing. It only makes things worse, and you only become more and more miserable. Loving relationships will last longer than any petty fight, and even if they aren’t sorry for what they’ve said or done, you can be the bigger person by not retaliating. Revenge and retaliation is nothing but a flaunt of pride, and to forgive means to swallow our pride and love our persecutors anyway. The way that I like to look at this is, every time we sin, we hurt Christ- but he continues to love us anyway. Could you imagine what our lives would be like if He wasn’t as forgiving as He is? We’d all be in trouble. As Christians, we are called to be as Christ-like as we possibly can, so I think that it is important to put love before your pride and to have forgiveness towards people, no matter how hard that may be.