Bitterness

One thing that keeps coming up in my life is the word bitterness and how I seem to be constantly struggling with this. It rears it's ugly head in all areas of my life; marriage, parenting, work, relationships. In my head, I know that what comes out of my mouth and what I think is directly tied to what is in my heart. However, apparently the message is not getting down to the rest of my body!

I came across the following four questions that a Pastor had written to reflect on whether a person is struggling with bitterness:

1. Do you continually replay in your mind with great detail a negative past event and dislike for the person(s) involved?
2. Do you find yourself continually referring to someone in a pejorative fashion because of some past hurt?
3. Do you intentionally avoid certain person(s) because you find yourself becoming continually annoyed and angry in their presence?
4. Do you find that your dislike of someone is growing over time?

As I thought about these questions, it become quite apparent that I do have bitterness in my heart toward some people and need to get rid of it. Why do I tend to hold on to past hurts and when others have sinned against me for so long, when I expect others to forgive me right away, when I hurt them?

I ran across a great analogy of Luke 6:45 by a missionary to India for 55 years, who articulates this point extremely well:

"For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted." The jolt does not change the water. The jolt only brings out of the container what is already there.