THINK TOGETHER.
Have you ever tried to get even with someone who hurt you?
READ TOGETHER
Proverbs 24:29. Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.”
Pay back. Getting even. Revenge. When you get hit what do you do? Hit back. When someone takes your game or toy what do you do? Take theirs. When someone calls you something mean what do you do? Call them something meaner. If someone gossips about you what do you do? Gossip about them.
Pay back is our natural response when we think we’ve been hurt by someone else. But Solomon (and the rest of the Bible) will teach us that pay back is foolish. It is not wise. Why not? Because it doesn’t ever make our hearts feel better. It doesn’t solve the problem. It only begins a cycle of pay back where both people keep getting even until things get really, really bad and you end up hating each other.
Jesus took it even further than Solomon. Solomon says don’t pay back others for their wrongs, but Jesus told us to do good to others when they wrong us (can you see the difference?). Jesus said that we should always do to others what we would want done to us. The Apostle Paul said that we should never try to overcome evil with more evil (which just creates more and more evil), but that we should overcome evil with good – kindness, love, forgiveness.
This is only possible when we trust Jesus, his love for us and his justice toward others that hurt us. Jesus doesn’t want people to get away with being mean and hurtful. But he also knows that when we try to pay others back, it just makes us mean and hurtful too. So trust him to deal with others. Trust that he loves you and that you don’t need to get revenge. Why not? Because nothing that Jesus gives to you can be taken away from someone else.
Because of Jesus we can trust God’s justice and his love.
With Jesus we can love and forgive instead of paying back.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Talk with your children about what to do when someone mistreats them. When should they walk away, get a grown-up involved? When is it right for them to defend themselves. How can they talk to those who are being hurtful? Do some role playing scenarios to help.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, what you give me no one can take away. I don’t need pay back, I need you. Help me to give forgiveness and kindness instead of revenge. Amen.
TLICfamily 