Put Down That Sack

​I remember hearing years ago that holding a resentment is like allowing someone to live rent free in your mind.  Well, real estate is getting pretty damn expensive these days!!!
 
I have a confession, but only if you promise not to blab it to the entire world: I have unrealistic expectations of others.
 
Can you relate?
 
While I want others to forgive when I have wronged, give me space to learn and grow, be patient as I continue to grow into the person I am trying to become, I quickly pull out the rusty butter knife at a moment’s notice to cut someone by the throat (figuratively, I’m nonviolent here, don’t be getting your panties up in a wad over that visual).
 
So why is that?  Why am I so quick to judge yet eager to be cut some slack?
 
Isn’t that human nature?  We want our cake and eat it too.
 
Instant gratification.  A right now society.  Gimme gimme gimme…Veruca Salt to the extreme (if you don’t know the Willy Wonka reference, we can’t be friends).
 
So perhaps, I can start with me.  And that’s exactly what has happened this past week.
 
I had this resentment building for years, ok…decades.  I wanted this person to rescue me, fix me, take all my troubles away, and when I thought I was wronged, abandoned, I just wanted to see all the horrible there was in them, and not give it a moment to see any of the good.  Or, to take a moment and see life from their perspective.
 
Good thing I have friends in my life who can give me a reality check and a virtual bitch-slap to put me in my place.
 
So, I have been asked to pray for that person, for 2 weeks, to have everything they want.  I’m halfway through as of today, and can report that the amount of anger, rage, and gall I have for them is nearly completely dissipated.  It feels like the 50-pound sack I’ve been carrying is finally being set down and I can walk again unimpeded. 
 
And dare I say, the love that was buried underneath is starting to return.

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