Life 101

Has someone recently hurt your feelings or made you angry?

Does someone treats you unfairly?

Enemy is a strong word but in this context, is this how you view that person?

According to Wikipedia, the word Enemy comes from the 9th century Latin word inimi, which essentially means “bad friend”. Emotions associated with the enemy include anger, hatred, frustration, envy, jealousy, fear or distrust.

I’ll share something my oldest son taught me about how to respond to this enemy.

My son’s name is John Thomas. He is counting the days until his 13th birthday.

In my mind, he is much like a 5-month-old Great Dane. He has huge feet and a gangly body that has grown so quickly that he’s still trying to get used to his new size.

He’s also a happy-go lucky kid. He struggles in school with writing, so we are journaling to each other as a way for him to practice. The other night he wrote something that really touched me. I thought about polishing this up but decided instead to share this just as he wrote it.

“For when I got bullied. I did not notice until it happened. His name is Bryson and he was the bully. He would always stare at me and call me names. This continued throughout the year. I kept getting emotional. But when I got to Beechwood (this is his new middle school) he was in my first period. So, one day the teacher put me next to him. I was scared and at first we didn’t talk. But as we got in a group together, we started talking and it was really fun.

So, the weeks went on and soon we were telling jokes and laughing. We had tons of fun and also started working together more. I love what happened on that day. Having that makes me think that this was God’s plan and I love him for that.”

Do you remember that person you thought about earlier? What if you didn’t think of them as the enemy? Was the bully, my son’s enemy?

John Thomas taught me that if you are willing to love your enemy, you may discover a new friend. The enemies in our life present us with the opportunity to make a powerful decision. This is often not an easy decision. However, this can be a life changing decision for you and for them.

There will always be people who treat you wrongly, hurt your feelings or just plain rub you the wrong way. How will you respond? Will you love your enemy?