Sticks and stones...

I have had a few people in my life recently who didn't care for me much. One of them has decided that I am a heritic (intentional false teacher) because I disagreed with him about some Bible stuff. Another one of them didn't like some of the decisions I made that affected them personally. And the human side of me has this desire to be justified. It wants to convince as many other people as possible that I am a great guy. And the way that plays out for me is like this: I either end up in a conversation about those circumstances or I bring them up myself and then I quickly explain my point of view. I do it in a way that no one could ever accuse me of gossipping or speaking maliciously about someone, but the real intent of my heart is to raise myself up and dimisnish the other person.
I have been confronted lately with this idea that I am not so important that someone can't say anything bad about me. When I look at the life of Jesus I see Him choosing to love for real and not just on the outside when He is insulted. They beat him with sticks and tear him apart physically and emotionally. Its not just that He doesn't respond, but He doesn't bring it up again either. He just keeps going. As a matter of fact, in 1 Peter 2:23 it says, "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." There was a time in the life of King David as well when a man was cursing him (2 Samuel 16:5-12) and a friend of David's wanted to go kill the man. David tells him not to, because maybe he deserves it. And even if he does not deserve to be cursd, God sees everything and He will do what is right.
I guess I just want to share the idea that when we are offended we think we need to defend ourselves. But I bet in most, if not all, of those circumstances we are forgetting that God is the One who's opinion matters and we should not think so highly of ourselves that we get irrate when someone speaks poorly about us. If you can remember that God is watching and entrust yourself to Him then you will be able to "...guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.' (Prv 4:23)
Love ya.