Dealing With ‘Hurt Feelings’

Greg Gwin
01/22/12 - Attitude

It's easy to get your feelings hurt. All of us have suffered such wounds, sometimes from folks who were purposefully out to 'do us in', and sometimes from unintentional words or deeds. Regardless of how it happens, it still hurts.

But realizing that these things do happen, we must be prepared to handle such situations correctly. How often have you heard of a brother or sister in Christ who suffered "hurt feelings" and then decided to stop attending the assemblies? We've even known of folks who completely fell away because of some misunderstanding, some 'hurt' (either real or imagined). And some will use their 'hurt feelings' as an excuse to 'nurse a grudge', or to gossip, or to engage in some other form of harmful 'behind the scenes' activity. This type of conduct obviously demonstrates a flawed attitude on the part of the person who claims to have gotten their feelings hurt.

Consider the Ethiopian eunuch as a model for us to imitate. In Acts 8:26-40 we read his story. He had been to Jerusalem to worship God. This was a roundtrip journey of well over 1000 miles on rough roads and by way of very primitive transportation. Yet when he arrived in Jerusalem he would not have been allowed to enter the temple because he was a eunuch (Deut. 23:1). He would have been forced to deliver his gift and trust others to see that it was sacrificed for him. And yet he was willing to do this because of his love for God and his desire to serve Him.

I'm afraid many folks of our day would not have tolerated such treatment. With a good case of hurt feelings they would have built up resentment against God and His people. And to spite them, they would ruin themselves. May it never be so.