Unoffendable Heart

 By: Grace Metzger

Hatred stirs up strife,
But love covers all offenses.
Proverbs 10:12

My latest goal in my life is to create an unoffended heart. I know that sounds like a very odd statement so let me explain why I decided to start this journey. I recently noticed that everything someone said or did, I would take in a negative way. I was allowing small things like someone cutting me off while driving, someone not eating the food I made, etc to affect my mood. I was assuming negative intentions. Doing this not only would ruin my day but I noticed it also affected others. When I was assuming that people were trying to hurt me, it would affect my relationship with that person. I wanted to change this, so I started working on creating an unoffendable heart.

Do not take to heart all the things
That people say, lest you hear your servant
Cursing you. Your hearts knows that many times
You yourself have cursed others.
Ecclesiastes 7:21-22

Reading that verse isn’t easy, at least for me. I’m reminded of times when I offended others, whether on purpose or not. I have been guilty of this. Everyone has been guilty of cursing others in their hearts. We’ve been blessed that God knows we do this and yet He continues to give us grace and mercy. If God has grace towards us, then why shouldn’t we have grace towards others? God even calls us to do this in John 15:12-13, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

God is a wonderful example of living life with a unoffendable heart. Jesus was mocked while He was on the cross. Image being on the cross, in the worst pain you could ever go through, and while you’re doing this you’re being mocked by the same people you are trying to save. I probably would have been livid, telling God that they weren’t worth my pain. But Jesus wasn’t mad, hurt, or offended, in fact Jesus even went as far as to ask God to forgive them saying they did not know what they’re doing.

Maybe the person who cut in front of you while they were driving didn’t know what they were doing. I know when I first started driving, I definitely cut a lot of people off on accident. Or maybe that person who just said a hurtful thing didn’t intend hurt, or maybe they were not in the right frame of mind and took their own pain out on you.

Having an unoffendable heart isn’t easy and I have definitely not mastered it, or even came close to mastering it. It takes effort every day to wake up and decided to assume positive intention and I’m sure it always will take effort to do this. But the affect it will have on your mood, relationships, and life is undeniable.

Discussion Questions:

1.) What do you do when others offend you?

2.) What do you think will change when you start having an unoffendable heart?