Holding Grudges

I read a book this week that was interesting (it's called "Impractical Grace"...it was not bad).  The book was about showing grace to the people in our lives meaning handing out good to others no matter what they hand back to us.

At one point it talked about holding grudges against people who have wronged us and it shared a quote that I really loved.

"Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die from it."

I really love that.  It is so true.  Holding a grudge is a poison in our own soul that hurts us but doesn't really do much damage to the other person.  It causes us to shrivel and wretch and doesn't do us any good.

I think my kids (and probably kids in general) are great examples of handling problems with other people.  They can blow things off, even offensive and cruel things, and be best friends with a tormentor within minutes.  It amazes me.

They are like this with me too.  There are times that I lose my temper or don't behave like a good mom ought to behave and when I go to them and apologize and ask for their forgiveness they grant it almost without any thought and then they completely let it go.  They don't hold my mistakes over my head,"Mom, remember that time when you..." or whatever.  They just let things go and their souls are free.

I want to be more like that.  I don't want to poison my soul just so I can remember why I dislike someone.  I don't think that means every person has to be my favorite, but I don't need to hold on to those grudges and make sure they are carefully shelved in alphabetical order.  I need to let them go and dump that poison down the drain.

Something for me to work on.