“You’ve got it made.” she said.   I said, “You’ll never know until you walk a mile in my moccasins.”     She said, “What do you mean?”   I said, “You’ll never know until you have walked in my shoes.   “Oh!” she said,

It seems we have only to listen and people make judgments.    Once said, the words can not be taken back.   Once done, the actions can not be undone.    Yet, little thought is given, and then the hurt settles in.   Unaware, the same people continue in their  ways.

They don’t get it!   They are defensive, and offensive, and see no fault within.

Hurt, and broken, the healing can begin.   It takes time.   Time, heals all wounds, it is said.    Yet, people and situations contribute to each of us.   We must choose to forgive.

Forgiveness is ever so difficult.    Yet, when not done, healing can not occur.   Healing occurs when forgiveness is ‘administered’ because it is ‘dressing the wound’.   A wound left undressed, unattended, festers, becomes infected, and healing hurts all the more;  this is what Our Lord was speaking of.

People get to know us.   They love to ‘poke’ and ‘tease’ when they discover what we believe passionately.

In doing so, they jab, and the rudeness hurts.   These ‘hot buttons’ are within all of us.   Unless we are aware they cause conflict we will be ‘hurt’ .    However, if we choose to be wise and realize this is their  ‘play ground’ we will not allow them to continue to ‘hurt us’.

We can not control what others do to us, but we can control how we respond.   This protects us, and we grow in wisdom, and grace, when we ‘know we are protected.’

When the Lord said, ‘set your face like flint’ he was  referring to the countless inflictions of hurt and conflict imposed daily.   The life we live, has constant barriers.   Most are from people empowering themselves at the expense of others, to their enjoyment.

Book of Deuteronomy: Chapter 8 verses 1-5

1 “Be careful to observe all the commandments I enjoin  on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the LORD promised on oath to your fathers.  2   Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert,” so as to test your affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep  his commandments.   3   He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers, in order to show you that not by bread alone does man live, but by every word than comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.   4  The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years.   5   So you must realize that the LORD, your GOD, disciplines you even as a man disciplines his son.”

Book of Luke: Chapter 6 verses 22-23 Jesus Speaks:

22 “Blest shall you be when men hate you, when they ostracize you,  and insult you and proscribe your name as evil because of the Son of Man.   23 On the day they do so, rejoice  and exult, for your reward shall be great in heaven.    Thus it was that their  fathers  treated the prophets.”