Close to 10 years ago, I once worked at a boarding school for neglected children. Many of those kids were very sweet and gave me plenty of hugs and I gave them plenty of piggyback rides, while some kids had raging tempers and would sometimes throw desks at each other. Sometimes one would provoke me. Like this one little girl who was about 10 or so. She was starving for attention. Starving for love. As a teacher, I was a father figure to her. She would curse me and she would try to steal stuff from me to make me angry. If you think about it, the only love this girl ever had from her parents was abusive and angry. If she could get me to become angry at her, then to her it would feel like home, which she no longer had. So instinctively this student of mine wanted me to focus on her, and as a father figure she was looking for love. So to draw my attention to her she constantly tried to make me angry. Because to that poor little girl, anger and love are inseparable. They are one and the same to her, because that's all she's ever known. When I didn't get angry at her, she would break down crying and sometimes the other teachers needed to restrain her. She was just looking for the love from her parents that she never properly could get. Sad.

In the same way, when you have adversaries in life, be it a crappy boss or even an online troll, when people are bullies and are unkind, you have to think about what led them to become that way. What sort of brokenness they must have in their hearts.

Matthew 5:43-45 -- “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

Close to 10 years ago, I once worked at a boarding school for neglected children. Many of those kids were very sweet and gave me plenty of hugs and I gave them plenty of piggyback rides, while some kids had raging tempers and would sometimes throw desks at each other. Sometimes one would provoke me. Like this one little girl who was about 10 or so. She was starving for attention. Starving for love. As a teacher, I was a father figure to her. She would curse me and she would try to steal stuff from me to make me angry. If you think about it, the only love this girl ever had from her parents was abusive and angry. If she could get me to become angry at her, then to her it would feel like home, which she no longer had. So instinctively this student of mine wanted me to focus on her, and as a father figure she was looking for love. So to draw my attention to her she constantly tried to make me angry. Because to that poor little girl, anger and love are inseparable. They are one and the same to her, because that's all she's ever known. When I didn't get angry at her, she would break down crying and sometimes the other teachers needed to restrain her. She was just looking for the love from her parents that she never properly could get. Sad.

In the same way, when you have adversaries in life, be it a crappy boss or even an online troll, when people are bullies and are unkind, you have to think about what led them to become that way. What sort of brokenness they must have in their hearts.

Matthew 5:43-45 -- “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.