Monday, August 3, 2015

The art of overcoming Bitterness

The meaning of bitter is (of people or their feelings or behavior) angry, hurt, or resentful because of one's bad experiences or a sense of unjust treatment.
Bitterness is a feeling that derives from pain and hurt. There are many different reasons a person can become bitter. A bad breakup,unhappy living situations or living in a dysfunctional family environment are a few situations that can cause a person to become bitter. Regardless of the situation if not careful the spirit of bitterness can creep into the midst of your soul and create havoc in your life. Once bitterness has attached itself to your soul it will take a lot self reflection, forgiveness and prayer to remove it. Becoming bitter is not something we choose.When someone feels hurt or betrayed its a human instinct to become angry. Anger leads to ill feelings and ill feelings can bring on bitterness. Bitterness must be addressed and handled quickly because if left to fester you will become a person that will forever be stuck and no growth will take place. When someone hurts us we must always be aware that their actions have absolutely nothing to do with us and everything to do with the person that's inflicting the pain. This is the very reason why we should never allow the spirit of bitterness to enter our soul and if we should have a weak moment and it creeps in we should always rebuke  it immediately by praying and asking God to remove it. If not addresses in a timely fashion the bitterness will cause you to do things out of your character in a effort to hurt the one who hurt you. As the very popular cliche goes " hurt people hurt people" this reigns true in so many situations. Never exchange hurt for hurt because that in turn  places you on the same level as the person who caused your pain. Instead choose to practice forgiveness and pray that your heart be healed of all hurt. When you practice this the spirit of bitterness never has a chance to enter.
Ephesians 4:31-32 encourages us to leave all bitterness behind and don't mistreat or talk bad about people but to show love and compassion instead. At all times you should practice to be better not bitter. Being better allows you to more forward in joy and happiness and being bitter does quite the opposite. Bitterness breeds hate and having hate in your heart stifles you from growing. We should be all be on the path to growth and to remain on this path means saying no to bitterness and yes to being the best version of yourself so the world will always see your smile.


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