No, this post has nothing to do with "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." (That's the movie that the title of the post came from.) Rather, it has to do with a previous post and the surprises I got from it.
As you may recall, a few days ago I made a post entitled "Fact, Fiction, and the Holy Bible." I knew this was going to be an interesting if not volatile subject to discuss, and I was ready for the discussion to go either way. After all, if you're gonna post your thoughts in a public forum such as this, you have to be ready for any and all responses, right? I was - or so I thought.
I have a Facebook account, and I have that account set up to automatically post these blog entries there. It was on Facebook that I received 99% of the responses to my post. I received the responses that I thought I'd get. I got some very interesting, very educated, and very passionate responses to my opinions, and I respect them all. As I've said before, I don't consider opinions to be "right" or "wrong;" I consider them to be "different." This topic was not the exception to that rule. After reading the responses I received, I don't consider those who hold different opinions from mine as being "wrong;" rather, I just consider them as having a different opinion than mine, and I respect that. I'd like to think that they, in turn, respect my opinions as well. Like I said, I got the responses that I pretty much thought I'd get.
What I didn't count on was having my knowledge and competancies as a former Law Enforcement officer questioned, and I didn't count on being insulted, lectured, and talked down to along the way. I especially didn't count on it coming from a member of my own family.
This really struck a nerve with me for one very simple reason: there have been only two things in my life that I've been really, really good at. Both of them were when I was in the Air Force; one was when I was a Basic Military Training Instructor, and the other was when I was a Law Enforcement Specialist/Supervisor. In both areas, I was among the top 10% of my peers and was recognized as such. Needless to say, I'm very proud of what I did while in the service, and to have my abilities and knowledge in either of those areas questioned really struck a nerve. But I think what made it affect me as much as it did was the source.
At first it angered me, and I mean bad. I was pissed for the better part of two days; after that, I was just insulted and hurt. It bothered me continually every day after the comments were made, and I went over it in my mind again and again, trying to find a way I could resolve the conflict without causing it to get any worse. That has been the prevalent thought in my mind for the past two days - how to resolve the issue without making it worse.
And this morning, while I was conducting the safety walk of my store at 5:30AM, it hit me.
This whole thing started because of a discussion about the Bible, Christianity, and Christians, right? So maybe I needed to take a step back, remember what I've learned from the Bible and Jesus Christ about how to act like a Christian, and do what a good Christian would do. But just what would a good Christian do?
He'd forgive the transgressions against him, that's what.
Duh. Shouldn't have taken me that long to figure it out.
So that's what I decided to do, and I hate to sound corny or "over the top" or anything like that, but as soon as I decided to take that course of action my mind cleared, it stopped bothering me, and I immediately started to feel better - like a weight had been lifted off of me. Seriously.
So I have forgiven the person who laid the insults on me, although until he reads this post he won't realize it. Holding grudges never does any good, and holding on to hostilities and anger only breeds more hostilities and anger. Even though I don't believe 100% of what is in the Bible, I do believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ and in the value of forgiveness.
"Forgive and forget," as the old saying goes. Forgive, absolutely.
But I won't forget. Absolutely.
IHC
7 comments:
Very good lesson there, my friend and brother. I just wish more self-styled Christians would remember that lesson as well.
The most baffling part for me is how the party that professes to uphold Christian values and morals would stoop so low as to put out bald-faced lies about a proposed plan rather than rolling up their sleeves and coming up with a viable alternative.
Now before any of my conservative friends shout me down for my view of the Republican Party let me say I have just as much disdain for the Democrats...but at least you don't hear them espousing "family values" while looking for gay sex in bathrooms and taking state planes to Argentina to cheat on their wives.
Yeah, our Governor is really catching hell over his little trips to Argentina, as well he should! Not to say that the Democrats are squeaky-clean, though...plenty of them are doing the exact same things, the only differences are they're not touting "christain values" while they're doing it, and they're not getting caught. But you can bet your ass it's going on...people are people, no matter what.
And as I said, two posts ago....PEOPLE LIE. PERIOD.
There's more than enough blame to go around on this one....
Exactly the point...people LIE, everybody, the entire population of the world lies at least some of the time...yes, Bill lied abotu his affair with Monica...yes JFK never "acknowledged" his affair with Marilyn and, yes, FDR never said a word about his little trysts (although I don't know if I can really hold it against Bill and FDR, I mean look at their wives!) but the biggest difference is none of the three ever publicly professed their Christianity or "family values".
Both parties are despicable, it's just the Dems are getting better at not getting caught after "Monicagate"...LOL
So you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!
Oh my brother! I have always felt that way about both parties...I just get a little defensive sometimes...I think I am gonna change my party affiliation to Independent...that way I can criticize both guilt-free!
I've already decided to go the Independent route...that way I can't be accused of being either a liberal or a conservative! Should be interesting to see what they come up with to accuse me of being, though....
Yep, me too...although I can already think of a few names some idiots will call you and me...and none of them can be mentioned here...lol!
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