- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 18,404
Easily hurt?
'A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT DOES WONDERS.' PROVERBS 12:25
Ask yourself, 'Do I hurt people, or am I easily hurt by them?' Then consider these truths:
1) Hurting people hurt other people. The German poet Herman Hesse wrote: 'If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.' Hurting people lash out in response to what's happening inside them. They feel or believe something negative within themselves. Try to remember that.
2) Hurting people are more easily hurt again. Let's say you've got a splinter in your finger and it becomes infected. Then someone brushes against it. You howl with pain, 'Aaaah! You hurt me!' But the real problem is not that someone accidentally touched it - the problem is you still have a splinter and you've not dealt with it! Hurting people overreact, overexaggerate, and overprotect. Ask any counsellor who's dealt with a hurting couple. Emotionally speaking one half 'throws up' then the other half 'cleans up.' Usually the one with the most pain does the most damage.
3) Quick fixes don't work. The kindest thing you can do for hurting people is ask them, 'Are you prepared to work through the issues and get beyond your pain?' When a drainage company was working under the streets cleaning out a sewer they found: sixty-one diamond rings, several vintage coins and a whole load of silverware! It was an unpleasant job - but they discovered all sorts of valuables in the process! Now, in the same way you may need to do some digging and deal with some pretty nasty stuff, but you're going to discover some treasures you didn't know existed.
'A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT DOES WONDERS.' PROVERBS 12:25
Ask yourself, 'Do I hurt people, or am I easily hurt by them?' Then consider these truths:
1) Hurting people hurt other people. The German poet Herman Hesse wrote: 'If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.' Hurting people lash out in response to what's happening inside them. They feel or believe something negative within themselves. Try to remember that.
2) Hurting people are more easily hurt again. Let's say you've got a splinter in your finger and it becomes infected. Then someone brushes against it. You howl with pain, 'Aaaah! You hurt me!' But the real problem is not that someone accidentally touched it - the problem is you still have a splinter and you've not dealt with it! Hurting people overreact, overexaggerate, and overprotect. Ask any counsellor who's dealt with a hurting couple. Emotionally speaking one half 'throws up' then the other half 'cleans up.' Usually the one with the most pain does the most damage.
3) Quick fixes don't work. The kindest thing you can do for hurting people is ask them, 'Are you prepared to work through the issues and get beyond your pain?' When a drainage company was working under the streets cleaning out a sewer they found: sixty-one diamond rings, several vintage coins and a whole load of silverware! It was an unpleasant job - but they discovered all sorts of valuables in the process! Now, in the same way you may need to do some digging and deal with some pretty nasty stuff, but you're going to discover some treasures you didn't know existed.
