THE ONE GREAT SIN

More suffering comes into the world by people taking offense than by people intending to give offense. -- Ken Keyes

That is one of the most profound things I've ever heard...at least to my thinking right this minute.

I was laughing at myself this morning, over a self-pitying thought I'd just had, and I considered sharing it with a friend. Fortunately, God, or something like it, spoke in my ear, and said, "She'll take that personally."  And I knew it to be true.

It had nothing to do with her in reality, it did have to do with a single thought of mine about her, and the thought did not show me in best light. That's why it was so funny. But I was gifted with a glimpse of how it could (likely, would) play out, and just had to grin.

I had to grin because the reason I knew how it would likely play out is that is exactly how I c/would react under the same conditions. Ego would tell me there had to be a less-than-wonderful reason I was being told this, and POW...hurt/anger/justified resentment full-blown born.

We're often advised not to think too much, and that is excellent advice...but we must learn to think first before we act, before we speak. And the thinking is about the other...the other to whom we're speaking or with whom we're interacting.

The one great (possibly only, according to me) sin is to give a resentment, to cause a resentment. It is almost a surety that the resentment we cause is the resentment we're holding toward that one, knowingly or un...for aren't resentments always directed outward?

Having thought it through, my little self-pitying thought this morning was, in truth, an itch for a resentment toward my friend's inaction toward me! She'd done nothing, and I was itching to resent that. Now that is funny...but only to you and me. She need never know.

Thank You.