What people do to us is what hurts only our feelings; our negative reaction to what they do hurts our inner self. Feelings are transitory but what we do with those feelings can do permanent damage to ourselves and those we love.
Oh, Self, please be slow to speak. Or let any words be noncommittal and nonjudgmental. I am not the one to judge-only the one to learn. If all I can learn at this moment is not to speak, please let me learn it well.
"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked throughout the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything an be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
~Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Let me exercise my freedom to choose my attitude.
As we dwell in the prison camp of helplessness we find ourselves in just now, let me be the one giving away bits of bread and comforting others who grieve:
- the faithful older sister who feels betrayed because MG told her friend her "happy news" but not the sister who has been there with never a word of accusation, only grace and love
- the little brother who bitterly commented "I thought one of our family values was honesty"
- the little sister realizing that she "doesn't know" MG any more
- another sister whose tears mirror mine
- the older bother who says "you can't stop a train wreck" yet I am certain he is constantly in prayer for her
- the littlest brother who doesn't really know what is wrong but feels unsettled and insecure
I am praying that each of us will choose the "high road" and choose our attitudes wisely, at least in the cold, clear light of day. In the dark night, may God comfort my loved ones who struggle feelings of betrayal and loss.
