Feed your enemies...

     The statement "FEED YOUR ENEMIES" is an interesting statement. One I never thought of before in this light.  What comes to my mind when I hear that statement *which I heard for the first time this last weekend during conference*  is be humble,  be kind, endure to the end, love thy neighbor, forgive them, pray for them and let it go.  All those statements can be really hard to do while being taunted or hurt by our "ENEMIES." I don't know about you, but enemies seems too harsh of a word to me.

en·e·my   /ˈɛnəmi/ Show Spelled [en-uh-mee] Show IPA noun, plural -mies, adjective

noun

1. a person who feels hatred for, fosters harmful designs against, or engages in antagonistic activities against another; an adversary or opponent.

2. an armed foe; an opposing military force: The army attacked the enemy at dawn.

I know I have my moments of being upset with or even at someone, but I have never HATED anyone.  I have been raised that hate is not of God and it was not even considered a word in our vocabulary. I have taught my children the same thing. *still teaching because 3 are still very little*

    I have a friend who is an amazing example to me of what CHRIST-LIKE  looks like. She literally FEEDS HER ENEMIES! No lie!  Whenever someone upsets her or causes her pain, she makes them CUPCAKES and delivers them with a note of "I AM SORRY" for whatever she might of done to upset that person. She doesn't lay blame on them. She doesn't point out where they messed up...*we all know IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO and THERE ISN'T JUST ONE TO BLAME*  but she doesn't require them to apologize or even admit their wrong doing. She just quickly apologizes and trys to set things right to the best of her ability. Some still treat her badly but you know what.... she did her part. She did all she could in her power and she has nothing to worry about on her end. What GREAT PEACE she must feel to do the RIGHT thing.

   

    I personally have a lot to learn because when I am upset I have no desire to make cupcakes and run them out to that person. That is why I am writing this post... another thing for me to work on ;) Writing these thoughts down help me commit to becoming the person I know I need to be :)

    My Mother was a great example to me growing up *still is but talking about growing up right now*  Here are some of her own GOLDEN RULES  to live by...

   1. If you can't say anything nice, DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL.

    2. KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS

    3. Try to find one good thing in every person and focus on that.

What an amazing person my Mother is! She taught me by example these three golden rules. She lived by them too. I strive to be that mother to my children. I have tried to teach these things to my children as well.

    Looking back on past issues in my life I can see where sometimes I did the right thing and I did endure... and there were times I didn't.  All I can do now, is repent of the past mistakes and try to do it right from this point on. None of us are perfect, this is true... but it shouldn't be our excuse to stop trying or give up on one another.

   

       " Don't judge me because I sin differently than you." 

    

     If we can all look at our differences or upset in that light, *I sin differently than you*  then we would not be so quick to call those that upset us our enemies. We will see them in the light that we too should be seen, as a human doing our best and making mistakes along the way. May we all feed our enemies and hopefully along the way that list of enemies will become less of a list.