It happens.

And I’m not talking about ____ (fill in the blank, try to keep it clean).

I’m talking about betrayal. Ouch!

Betrayal is part of life and yet most of us are surprised when it happens. If you live long enough someone will disappoint you, hurt you and leave you…intentionally or unintentionally.

I like to think most people don’t want to hurt someone else on purpose. I like to think most hurt is unintended. But when betrayal is on purpose anything could be the root cause of someone’s decision to hurt another human; perhaps they have the opportunity to get ahead at work, or they decide they don’t like you anyway, or they care more about xyz than they do you, or they rationalize in their mind that they are right and you’ll get over it, or temptation got the best of them. Who knows, right?

And how often when we do not know the root cause of why the betrayal happened we dwell on the reasons why? Why, why did they do this? Ugh. We dwell. For days. Or months. –What a waste of precious mind power!

When we read scripture and learn about Jesus, notice how he rolled with the punches. Jesus was not surprised when Judas betrayed him. Jesus wasn’t surprised when Peter went back to fishing when he should have been out sharing the gospel.

Jesus said things like, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34

If Jesus could hang on a cross and still say forgive them, then how can we not strive to offer the same love in our day to day situations?

The punches come and go. Try to roll with life like Jesus. And seek guidance from Above to heal your pain…so you don’t dwell, so you don’t replay the tapes in your head over and over again.

You are worth more than wasted energy. You are precious and every human is learning at a different rate. Allow the space for personal growth. Look at betrayal as pruning; perhaps you needed less of that person in your life anyway. Allow peace and forgiveness in your heart.

Remember that Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4

I believe some of the most successful people are those who forgive and overlook quickly. They do their best not to waste a moment of precious time or mind power. Learning to accept betrayal as part of life and learning how to forgive quickly may not be easy, but practice makes imperfect bearable.

Glenna