Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Ephesians 4:31
When our pup first came into our house, he didn’t know what the rules were and couldn’t speak our language. We had a communication barrier. Think how you would feel going into another country without knowing what anyone was saying and not being able to read any signs. How scary! It was our job to teach him right from wrong, but he hadn’t yet started to understand what was being said. Slowly that would change as we trained him. We would learn to read his body language and he would learn to read ours. Words and hand signals would close that communication gap in lightning speed.
That young pup tended to put his mouth where it wasn’t supposed to be. How could we stop this when he couldn’t understand us? One way to help him understand where his mouth wasn’t allowed was bitter apple spray. We would spray a few shots of that on whatever caught his fancy that shouldn’t have. This even included our fingers and hands! The first time he got a taste of it, he wasn’t sure what was happening. He went right back again for round two without hesitation. He seemed astonished he got the same result the second time. We watched his mind trying to process what was going on, but it wasn’t coming together quite yet. Of course he’s going to go back for a third try! This time, he was a bit more cautious. Lightbulb moment! We could see the wheels turning. The conclusion…it was time to give the object that seemed so tempting at first, a little space.
How many times have we been in the position of that pup where someone’s bitterness has taught us to give them their space? The more we have dealt with the problem in others, the more experienced we get in recognizing it…in others. What about ourselves? It isn’t so easy to realize it’s there.
We need to ask ourselves if there is any unresolved anger or disappointment hiding somewhere inside creating bitterness. Are people backing away? Is there a resentment we are harboring that is causing us to be coated in bitterness or harshness? We need to take a good, hard look on how we respond to people around us. Are they attracted to us like a dog is drawn to his favorite treat or are they repelled from us like a dog is to bitter apple spray?
I challenge you to get rid of the old junk you’ve been carrying around. It just weighs you down, and frankly, makes you hard to be around. I’m doing some plain talking now…we all need it sometimes! I want people to be able to go around you without them run away sneezing from the bad taste in their mouth (umm that was the dog)…err…making them run away with their tail tucked (oops, again that would be the dog)…hmm…making them slowly back away not wanting to set off the trap. That could be another animal, but you get my point!
