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Insults And Offenses

             Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult. (Proverbs 12:16) 

A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense. (Proverbs 19:11)

 One of the challenges in the book I’m looking through is to act as Jesus would act if He were in our shoes. Among the many things listed is a suggestion that we use those times in which we feel attacked to pray for more attachment to God, and less dependence on the reactions and opinions of others. I have to admit, this is hard.

It depends in part on who is doing the insulting or offending. I expect this sort of thing from those who hate me. What tends to bother me more is when someone whose opinion matters to me, and who supposedly cares about me thinks it acceptable, or even necessary, to get in those little digs. You know the sort, something that makes you the butt of their jokes, something designed to show others that you’re not quite acceptable. Oh, they mean well. It’s either to get you to not take yourself so seriously or to make sure you don’t get too big for your britches. It’s when they can’t be bothered to laugh with you, but they certainly laugh at you and expect you to laugh along.

Part of the reason I’m talking so much about the insults and offenses that we’re supposed to overlook is the fact that they are insults and offenses. They do hurt. They are death by a thousand cuts instead of a stab into an artery, but they can grow infected.

So, what does “overlook” mean? Thinking about it, perhaps the most useful idea is that it means that the offense doesn’t block your view of the person involved. Another is that it is a high place from which one can see the whole picture. 

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