Surfing Buddies Wanted.

What if our trials and circumstances are not all for our benefit.  What if they were intended to give us experience that we might help another along our way.  I have learned so much, and am the person I am because of all my trials and blessings.

While talking to my home teachers about this topic last night I was asked how I would help someone who had been abused pull apart the bitterness and leave only the good.  My answer honestly surprised even me. I thought and then I said "I don't think I would tell them to separate anything"  I went on to explain that the bitterness is often felt because we are trying to separate things too much.  I will try to explain.

Sometimes when you've been hurt in ways that you never could imagine, you try to act like...well perfect. You tell your friends your fine, but inside you want to scream.  Bottling up that "screaming feeling" is what causes the bitterness.  It's the side effect of not being true to yourself.  It's okay to be angry, for a while. That anger takes the form of many things depending on who we are.

For me, if I try to separate myself from the pain, by acting against my true nature,  I create even more of a mess.  Now I'm hurt and I've lost myself.  The result are waves of constant fighting inside myself, which brings on unfathomable emotions.  If I fight against those waves I will eventually drown in despair and bitterness.

But...

If when I have let myself feel, for a time, all of those waves, I eventually adapt to my new surroundings.  With every wave comes knowledge and adjustment until finally I'm body surfing over the waves instead of drowning under them.  I have found a way to not only survive but to have fun amidst all those emotions.
P.S. As a kid  I LOVED body surfing.

So if I asked someone to separate their bitterness to get over a trial, I truly have only sentenced them to drowning instead of adjusting.  I should be asking them to stay low only until they learn to adjust, and offering my knowledge of how to body surf for their benefit.  Thus my trials play a part in their adjustments.

God knows in His wisdom that we need each other.  Sometimes it's just to be a surfing buddy!