Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Offended
We don’t get offended unless it’s true (or we think it’s true) and we wish it wasn’t. If someone calls me stupid it doesn’t bother me if I don’t feel stupid. If someone says that I am just a man, it doesn’t bother me since I am happy to be a man. If someone says that I am pretty smart for a man I am happy to hear it but if someone says that you are pretty smart for a girl it often causes offense. If the girl thinks that women are smarter than men, then it would be a compliment. If she doesn’t think that women are smart then… Minority groups often struggle with this very problem. Be proud to be a Christian or black or native or whatever you are. God made you that way for a reason. He is proud of what you are, and you should be too. Only don’t be proud to be something that God didn’t make you, such as a sinner, just be glad for forgiveness.
The biggest cause of insecurity is insecurity. It is most often insecurity that causes us to feel offended. Bible lovers won’t feel insecure because they will feel so attached to God. When we feel insecure we act insecure and therefore are insecure. The victory comes when we see how, secure people act, and act that way. This makes us feel secure and then it is easier to act secure. I tell myself to grow up when I feel insecure and when I act grown up I no longer feel insecure, but I don’t want to tell you to grow up in case you get offended. ???
As a child when I would act insecure mom or dad would say “grow up”, this would cause me to act in a mature fashion and I would feel less insecure.
In any case there is no excuse to be offended. If I am offended then I don’t love the Bible enough. Ps 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. I added the bold and underline to emphases that nothing will offend if we love God's Word.
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ReplyDelete"LIKE" - A wise friend of mine, other than you, told me once that his father told him that it is a choice whether to be offended. He was referring to many things, but specifically applied to other kids calling him names because he was (and remains) an Italian-Canadian and kids can be mean. I agree with his father, but really wished I'd learned that lesson, as well as yours, much earlier in my life. I don't believe people think of me as insecure, but I'm not as thick-skinned as I would have preferred to have been in life. As a parent I want to give my daughters, any child that I offer guidance to, the thick-skin-ed-ness without making them too tough, emotionless... really I just want them to be happier/smarter/braver than I was.
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