By Part 3 of 3. This will be a TOUGH challenge. I hope you’re up for it. Today can you be grateful for your enemies? I have a very short list, thank goodness, of people who fall into this category. I started to list them here…but if I do (and I did, but I came back and edited the blog), I’m missing the point of this exercise!
I had a visceral reaction just typing their names. I flashed back to the particular moments and could feel my shoulders tense up.
Can I be grateful for my enemies? What a true test! I can be grateful perhaps for the lessons that they taught me. I can be grateful for what I learned about myself and my ability to bounce back. Is that enough? No, of course not.
Ultimately, you’re a better person if you can give grace to your enemies. As with strangers, you don’t know what they’re dealing with that’s causing them to act the way they do.
I found this post from a church. I pulled this quote that says all you need to know.
Loving a person who loves you in return requires nothing burdensome. But to love an enemy…to be thankful for what our enemies do for us – is the challenge that Jesus sets before us. But why? Without our enemies, our ability to love would never be challenged
To see your enemy through loving eyes – this is something we should all strive for.
To recognize that my own actions probably have me on someone’s (or several people’s) enemy list! I’m not perfect. I should see my enemy as flawed, just like me, and in need of grace and love.
(nothing to do with the blog – just a statue of a wiener dog that makes me smile)
