Turn the other Cheek

I’ve had people treat me poorly. over the years from grade school on up..

I mean...Thank you, Captain Duh, because we all have.

At times, I’ve turned around and treated those people poorly right back, and I won’t lie, it felt good in that moment. It felt like justice and karma and me standing up for myself.

Other times, I’ve walked away with love and an understanding that mean people are usually miserable people, and I won’t lie, it was hard in that moment. Incredibly hard. It felt like coward and the bad guy getting away with the crime unharmed.

But I’ve never regretted it long-term.

Not one single time.

I’ve never regretted forgiveness. I’ve never regretted kindness. I’ve never regretted goodness. I’ve never regretted grace.

I’ve never regretted doing the right thing.

Not one single time.

And I think that’s the thing we have to realize about God’s instructions: yes, they’re to bring glory to His name first and foremost, but they’re also for our benefit.

He doesn’t tell us to turn the other cheek because He wants us to be weak. He tells us to turn the other cheek because He wants us to live free of guilt, and shame, and the burden of knowing we opened our big, fat mouths and used our words and our actions to hurt another person.

He wants us to sleep peacefully at night, knowing we spread light when it would have been easier to compound darkness with more darkness. He wants us to go forward in the business of love instead of the business of retracting our steps and cleaning up our messes, which is usually like trying to stuff toothpaste back into the tube after it’s been squeezed all over the bathroom counters.

He wants us to live better because He is for us, and because He knows us, and because He has our back all the time.

Live fierce Love free,

Hope