“Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy.” (Proverbs 14: 10)
There is an old saying, “Anger does more damage to the vessel in which it is stored than the object over which it is poured.” I think the same thing could be said about bitterness.
While bitterness is not a Christian quality, it is a common quality among Christians. In fact, our bitter attitudes often turn Christians away from God instead of towards Him. I mean who in the world could ever see joy through the clouds of bitterness that some of us allow to hover over our heads?
My dad had every reason to be bitter about disappointments in his life. He lost his wife when he 51, while he still had two young children to raise. One year later, he was convicted of a felony that he did not commit, and because of that conviction, he lost almost everything that he owned.
For the rest of his life, I watched my father struggle to make a living. I helped him clean floors, cut grass, install air conditioners, and deliver refrigerators. Why there was nothing that he could not do, and nothing that he would not do for his family. You see pride was a sin that never showed up in my father’s life.
There were times in my young life when I thought things could not get any worse. My dad often told me to look beyond my own problems and I would always find someone who was suffering more than I. I know now that it was that philosophy that sustained his faith through some of his darkest times.
Throughout my life, I never heard my dad complain about his circumstances. More importantly, I never heard him say a bitter word about anyone, even about the men who framed him for stealing, all in an effort to see that he did not get promoted to Postmaster in my hometown. And when I was sexually abused by a principal at my junior high school, he told the superintendent of schools that he wasn’t interested in seeing anyone get hurt. “Just be sure,” he said, “that the man gets the help he needs, and see to it that he never works around young boys again.”
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:15, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. “I saw that verse lived out every day in the life of my dad. The fact is God allows trouble to come our way, but we have two choices that we can make when it comes. We can either allow it to consume us, or we can consume it, and move on.
I grew up with very little, or did I? God gave me a father who was strong in character and taught me to how to forgive.
Last weekend, I spoke to a church in North Carolina and looked so forward to seeing some of my old friends. One of those friends did not attend and later told someone, “He wouldn’t want to see me after what I did to him.” Well, I actually had to think about what he did. You see I had forgotten all about it and had also forgiven him for it a long time ago. He just didn’t know it.
“Train a child in the way be should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
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