"Frenemy" Repellant
"Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another." Romans 13:8... It is not easy to love those around us... the fake ones... we know who they are because we can see through their actions... we are not blinded by their "charm" like many are... we are not amused by their "witchiness" nor do we find it captivating... So how do we love those that trash us... that put us down...those we call "frenemies" defined as an enemy disguised as a friend... this word has been around since the 50's describing those that we either cant think quick enough to respond to.. Or choose to bite our tongue so that we dare not offend......
Recently I attended an event where at every angle... almost every word... I was either met with a critical response... given a smart comment... or just verbally slaughtered...it was a "tough room" and I was either working hard at biting my tongue...or too tired to argue...anyways... later that night and the next day is when it really began to bother me... Now if I was to let that resentment build a nest in my heart... I would be full of anger and become miserable like my attacker... I would reproduce anger...and pay it forward to others and continue this cycle of vexation...
Why do people, friends even, cut us down? Romans 13: 10 says "Love does no wrong to a neighbor". According to the Love Dare "every act of hatred is vetoed when love takes command in our hearts." This tells us what we are dealing with. If someone is antagonizing us, they are without love meaning they are walking this life miserable and absent of love in their heart. It could also mean they do not love themselves nor feel loved. You may aggravate this condition in their life. Nice to know... huh?
I know what I want to do... Tell them off... get the last word... but the Bible dumbs it down for us... It says in Matthew 5 to "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you... don’t match hate with hate... Veto the hate in your heart... replace it with the simplicity of love...
Dr. Martin Luther King once said "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....
We must break the chain reaction of evil and dig out our "frenemy repellant"... even with this repellent saturating through our clothes and skin, we are still bitten... but we are protected from a worst predicament... we need peaceful negotiations not threats of war... you can’t always win a person with an attack... with an evil return... we've all seen the results of war... and hostility... and hate... how different is our hate.. than a terrorists?... we don’t act on it in a violent manner...but what drives someone to murder is definitely hate that goes unchecked...
we are a nation without prayer... without God... who insists on handling things on our own... we will never succeed in our own personal battles when we enter "the woods" without repellent... without "Off"... we must gear up... with love as our armor... when attackers come to attack... they will flee from our aroma... and collapse after their sting.....
Love is simple... don’t make it so hard...
Recently I attended an event where at every angle... almost every word... I was either met with a critical response... given a smart comment... or just verbally slaughtered...it was a "tough room" and I was either working hard at biting my tongue...or too tired to argue...anyways... later that night and the next day is when it really began to bother me... Now if I was to let that resentment build a nest in my heart... I would be full of anger and become miserable like my attacker... I would reproduce anger...and pay it forward to others and continue this cycle of vexation...
Why do people, friends even, cut us down? Romans 13: 10 says "Love does no wrong to a neighbor". According to the Love Dare "every act of hatred is vetoed when love takes command in our hearts." This tells us what we are dealing with. If someone is antagonizing us, they are without love meaning they are walking this life miserable and absent of love in their heart. It could also mean they do not love themselves nor feel loved. You may aggravate this condition in their life. Nice to know... huh?
I know what I want to do... Tell them off... get the last word... but the Bible dumbs it down for us... It says in Matthew 5 to "love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you... don’t match hate with hate... Veto the hate in your heart... replace it with the simplicity of love...
Dr. Martin Luther King once said "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....
We must break the chain reaction of evil and dig out our "frenemy repellant"... even with this repellent saturating through our clothes and skin, we are still bitten... but we are protected from a worst predicament... we need peaceful negotiations not threats of war... you can’t always win a person with an attack... with an evil return... we've all seen the results of war... and hostility... and hate... how different is our hate.. than a terrorists?... we don’t act on it in a violent manner...but what drives someone to murder is definitely hate that goes unchecked...
we are a nation without prayer... without God... who insists on handling things on our own... we will never succeed in our own personal battles when we enter "the woods" without repellent... without "Off"... we must gear up... with love as our armor... when attackers come to attack... they will flee from our aroma... and collapse after their sting.....
Love is simple... don’t make it so hard...
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