What's That Smell?
On occasion I've entered the house after being gone for several long hours and wow, it hits me! A Smell! Not just any smell, but a smell you know must be found and immediately eliminated. The smell that is normally the cause of the sensory disgust: the kitchen garbage can. It's full and needs to be taken out. Taken out and destroyed! That is always the logical response to a stinky trash can, but what if I decided that no, it's not the trash? Instead I blamed it on the neighbor, the weather, the furniture, well, fill in the blank. That sounds crazy, but that's exactly what we do emotionally when it comes to hanging onto all the garbage that has been dumped on us by other people.
If you were to carry around an emotional garbage bag and collect all the stinky and vile things that are done or said to you, you would most likely have a full bag. Let's face it, this is life. It starts to stink fairly early when it comes to collecting the verbal vomit hurled towards us by others. By the end of the day a normal person would throw out stinky garbage, but by the end of our day, we sit, we sort through it and if we aren't careful, we save it for later. Later, when it begins to saturate the good of our life. It is the garbage in our emotional trash cans that we too often decide to carry around. We feel if we toss it out, it somehow allows the offender to get away with dumping it on us in the first place. Yet, if we carry it around, the people who threw the garbage in our can aren't the ones that everyone is going to think stinks, it is us!
We will stink, You will stink when you hang on to the garbage. You will become BITTER. That is the stinky truth. If you aren't careful, those daily drops into your waste can will go ignored until they have reached the height of putrid slime and all you can do is spew it on others. NO ONE wants to smell that. The truth about bitterness is that it never heals. It festers like a sore, it stinks, it destroys you, not the garbage dumper. They have their own trash to sort though. If you think you have no bitterness, try this test: When you hear a person's name or see their face, what face do you make? If your nose curls up like you've just smelled a rotten potato (those are so nasty) or a day old diaper, then yes, you are carrying garbage! You are harboring bitterness. But how do you empty the trash? Daily.
Daily recognize that, yes, they were wrong, but we can forgive. We can put it at the foot of the cross of Jesus. All of the trash of humanity was dumped on him and he took it, then he destroyed it by rising again! If you have accepted him into your life, He gives You Power! Power over the stink! He washes us white as snow. If you are carrying around emotional trash in the hopes of it being some sort of pay back to the offender, you are just going to reamain in a dumpy, paralyzed state of mind.
A year ago, God brought something to my mind that I'd not realized I was carrying in my trash can. I was harboring a hurt and I felt like the person who had hurt me was walking around looking like a saint. God spoke to my heart one morning as I was complaining about it in the form of a prayer: "What's more important to you? Your relationship with me or your "power" over them by holding on to this hurt?" That struck me in the deepest part of my soul because I had hid my emotional trash from everyone, but God knew it was there. The words of Jesus are healing when He said, "Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30
You will find REST for your SOULS. If you have been carrying around life's garbage, let's face it, you probably stink emotionally. You are probably negative and bitter. Carrying your pain around is exhausting. Take out your garbage! God will give you rest, but He can't destroy the pain until you are willing to give it up. Give it to Him. He will make all things come into the light and He will vindicate you. He does a much better job.
-Melissa Pyle
1/26/17
If you were to carry around an emotional garbage bag and collect all the stinky and vile things that are done or said to you, you would most likely have a full bag. Let's face it, this is life. It starts to stink fairly early when it comes to collecting the verbal vomit hurled towards us by others. By the end of the day a normal person would throw out stinky garbage, but by the end of our day, we sit, we sort through it and if we aren't careful, we save it for later. Later, when it begins to saturate the good of our life. It is the garbage in our emotional trash cans that we too often decide to carry around. We feel if we toss it out, it somehow allows the offender to get away with dumping it on us in the first place. Yet, if we carry it around, the people who threw the garbage in our can aren't the ones that everyone is going to think stinks, it is us!
We will stink, You will stink when you hang on to the garbage. You will become BITTER. That is the stinky truth. If you aren't careful, those daily drops into your waste can will go ignored until they have reached the height of putrid slime and all you can do is spew it on others. NO ONE wants to smell that. The truth about bitterness is that it never heals. It festers like a sore, it stinks, it destroys you, not the garbage dumper. They have their own trash to sort though. If you think you have no bitterness, try this test: When you hear a person's name or see their face, what face do you make? If your nose curls up like you've just smelled a rotten potato (those are so nasty) or a day old diaper, then yes, you are carrying garbage! You are harboring bitterness. But how do you empty the trash? Daily.
Daily recognize that, yes, they were wrong, but we can forgive. We can put it at the foot of the cross of Jesus. All of the trash of humanity was dumped on him and he took it, then he destroyed it by rising again! If you have accepted him into your life, He gives You Power! Power over the stink! He washes us white as snow. If you are carrying around emotional trash in the hopes of it being some sort of pay back to the offender, you are just going to reamain in a dumpy, paralyzed state of mind.
A year ago, God brought something to my mind that I'd not realized I was carrying in my trash can. I was harboring a hurt and I felt like the person who had hurt me was walking around looking like a saint. God spoke to my heart one morning as I was complaining about it in the form of a prayer: "What's more important to you? Your relationship with me or your "power" over them by holding on to this hurt?" That struck me in the deepest part of my soul because I had hid my emotional trash from everyone, but God knew it was there. The words of Jesus are healing when He said, "Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30
You will find REST for your SOULS. If you have been carrying around life's garbage, let's face it, you probably stink emotionally. You are probably negative and bitter. Carrying your pain around is exhausting. Take out your garbage! God will give you rest, but He can't destroy the pain until you are willing to give it up. Give it to Him. He will make all things come into the light and He will vindicate you. He does a much better job.
-Melissa Pyle
1/26/17
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