Thoughts by Jody Malm, Sheridan Lake housechurch.
Written on a chalk board that I just seen, “Everyone has a battle they are fighting, you may know nothing about. So be kind, always”.
That hit me, did it you? “Battle”, what a word – it has so much power.
We are all at the edge of a battle; we may choose to fill our hearts and minds with self-destroying thoughts. Visit the past, present, and dredge up all the stuff that has gone wrong in our lives, all the unfair, hurtful stuff that has been done to us. We poke at it, till we scratch our hearts. As we stay there the scratches become cuts that get deeper, we are sad and the wounds start to really hurt.
All our battles are very real, very real. How we choose to handle them though is up to us. We may have close family or friends or even a stranger who tries to help; they bring us food, a place to sleep, clothes, money, everything they can think of. But most of the time we want an ear, not so much someone to fix our cuts, our hurts – but to listen to us, acknowledge us, and be with us, hear us, truly hear us where we are at.
God does just that, he knows what you are going through and what you have gone through. He is there to listen, really listen to you. He understands, God has been there before. He will hold your hand; he will guide you, if you let him. God is not forceful or unkind. God loves you.
I like to think the human ones who love us would love to fix our hurts, to help us or even to do it for us. They want to help so bad that their heart aches, but they can’t. They can bring us all the tools to help us heal, but if we don’t do it for ourselves it won’t heal. The band-aide of our humanness has been placed on our wounds but the real wound has to be cleaned, scrubbed hard, disinfected, rinsed with living water, and this is where we can ask God to help.
We have to do it, we have to pick up the “tools” and scrub away the hardness of our hearts. As we do it, God is there; read his Word, He will encourage us, “keep going, you can do it, I am with you, I believe in you” and if we fall, we start again. That is God’s grace. God will battle with you, he won’t do it for you, but God will be there, he is right beside us, sometimes even carrying us.
We all have battles! As we fill our hearts with God’s love, kindness, forgiveness, song, praise, peace, gentleness, patience and prayer. These battle wounds are still there, but they start to heal, and become faded with time. Some scars were very deep, some were scratches. They can become healed scars in life, but we choose how we want to live with them, with love or with anger. I hope we remember, everyone is in a battle we know nothing about. So be kind always. Let’s help each other by showing Gods love, healing battle wounds into scars.
Jody Malm
