Anyone who has ever had to help do yard work knows how awful weeding is. You have to figure out where the root is, loosen all the soil around it, and then pull it out while making sure to get the WHOLE thing out so it cannot re-grow. Anger and bitterness can affect your life the same way weeds affect a plant. They strangle away all good things, suck all the joy out of your life, and leave you feeling dead inside.
Even if you have a good reason to hate or be bitter towards someone, it does nothing to get back at that person or make you feel better, it only makes you miserable. Even if you want to get rid of anger and bitterness, the hardest part is figuring out how to remove these two nasty weeds from your life.
First, like the weed you have to find the root of the problem. Why are you angry with this person? What makes you bitter towards them? Then you need to try to understand why this person hurt you. What is their life like? What could have happened to them that made them act the way they did? After you have found the root of the problem, you need to forgive them. This is the hardest thing to do, but after you forgive them, you will feel much better. By forgiving them and moving on, you are being the bigger person. You are not letting whatever they did to you affect you in any way. So the next time someone does something to you, whether it be something small like saying something mean to you, or something big like lying about you, just forgive them. Do not let what they did; cause you to sin against them by hating them or being bitter.
Katie Kane
Spring 2012