LaTease Rikards' Blog

Yesterday I had an interesting confrontation with a former co-worker. The end result required me to turn the other cheek and let him have his way. Basically I ate a frog.

Now, I am not a saint, nor a perfect person; however, there were things this man was writing about me on one of the popular social networking sites that began to sting me emotionally.

Man, you should have seen my facial expressions as I kept reading over and over the berating comments this man was making about me. Yet, I kept thinking, should I let him have it with both barrels? Because the things I wanted to say to him might have brought him to tears as well as embarrass him to his peers and friends.

But, something came over me. A sense of peace, of calm, maybe even a sense of taking the ‘high road’ on this one. I started thinking about Jesus dying on the cross and how those nails must have hurt way more than the simple words this man was writing about me. My heart was saying, ‘surely you can endure mere words as your savior endured much more for you on the cross.’

Let me tell you, I was still mildly simmering as I went to bed last night, even telling a mutual friend about the encounter. But, today is a new day, a new start, a new beginning, and this confrontation is a memory.

And guess what? I’m still living. His mean words did not change my bank account, did not change my peace, my happiness, nor my standard of living. (I eventually had to report him to the social networking site for harassment because he kept sending confrontational messages to my inbox.)

Sometimes, we have to turn the other cheek—it really doesn’t hurt. Letting him have his way, even though I wanted to fight back, was my frog.

I learned something about myself yesterday. I learned that I can choose to let God deal with someone, and I can remove myself from the situation. Turning the other cheek, and letting God handle it felt better. It was empowering to know that by letting this man spout his mean spirited words so the world could see, and me not arguing back with him…it felt different. Kind of like a growing up moment.

I am pretty sure the social networking site has removed him from the site, because when I searched for him this morning, his account can not be found.

Just because I turned the other cheek doesn’t make me a saint or anything, it just makes me a better and a bigger person.