Mercy (Five Minute Friday)

Welcome to Five Minute Friday. Where we stop, write for 5 minutes - with no editing, back tracking, second guessing. Just write and post. Then link up over here. And then go read a post (or 2 or 20) of the friends who linked before you. Leave a little love on their comments. 

Ready? Go.

Mercy. Hmmmm. Love how the Lord orchestrates the choice of Lisa-Jo's word right where I need it. It's been a week where I learned a lesson. A hard, but valuable lesson, of mercy.

Definition (thank you dictionary): compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence.

Thursday night I had to spend several minutes in conversation that was a WASTE.OF.MY.TIME.  Filled with lies and extraneous information, and very little concrete value. And I thought, REALLY? After all this time, when I have worked so hard to remove myself from this exact circumstance, I have to do it again? And I wanted ... oh, how I wanted ... to tell this person "stop with the lies. Stop making stuff up. Stop making me feel BAD when I didn't do anything. Not even didn't to anything WRONG, but flat out didn't do anything." Instead, I was reminded ... what can be done to make this better. How can I keep it from escalating into a full on shouting match with nothing good coming of it. Oh, right. Mercy. Just show kindness. toward an offender. Hmmmm.  OK, then. So I said "thanks for the feedback. I will try to keep that in mind." And we moved on. Without shouting. Without tears. There was some frustration on the other end, I think because I didn't react.  If I had, he'd have felt justified in exactly what he said.  Instead, we moved on, and he's left to puzzle over why I wasn't a wreck.

To be fully honest, I did come home and call a friend and vent a bit. And had her check me to be sure I wasn't missing some truth in the criticism.

And I spent a lot of time on my knees Thursday night. Thanking the Lord for giving me mercy every day. Because when I thought about it some more, I realized how often I can be acting like the offender. And the Lord takes it all in, draws me near, teaches me something, and bestows mercy. Every day. Without fail.  If He can do that for me, surely I can do it for another.