I told my little strong willed daughter to let it go after we walked to the car to leave our one on one walk after an incident on the playground when an impromptu playmate decided to act unfairly in a tag game they were playing together. My daughter kept looking back yelling,” Not fair, you cheated!” I shared with her that it was just a game, and I advised her to move on. She couldn’t help but look back with tears in being so upset continuing to repeat the same action until we made it to the car. There are times in our walk with God where some trivial action takes place that for the life of us we can’t let it go in ruminating over the situation instead of moving forward.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3: 1-2
Justifiable Hurt
I could see that my daughter was so hurt in feeling slighted, taking advantage of, and insulted by the action of the young lady and her sibling on the playground in being the one who throughout the game was told to be the chaser although fairly she tagged each one of them out. She was justifiably upset. I think it may of hit a deeper wound in seeing how she just wanted to make friends, but the other children had a different plan in playing the game. The mama bear in me was disappointed in seeing that their parents were so busy swiping their phones in not watching the kids equally in noticing the bullying behaviors. The moment we made the short walk to the car I wiped my baby girl’s tears with my thumb, gave her some words of wisdom on choosing friends to play with, and that she had a right to speak up for herself in embracing her with a hug. I also told her to look at this as a life lesson on selecting friends, but to let the incident go focusing more of the positives of our walk we shared together.
Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 39
She Gets It From Her Mama!
I can honestly say that she may get the ruminating trait from her mom. We ruminate when we think deeply and heavily on something in giving it more power than it should have. We later begin to overanalyze in our ruminating in making what seemed to be something small much bigger than it is. I don’t know about you , but I tend to ruminate when there is an incident where I felt like I didn’t advocate for myself in choosing silence in attempting to avoid conflict to get along to go along for the sake of pleasing others. I now know how I was giving my power away in rumination from snide comments made, petty gestures, a problem, or in situations where I should of said a big ” No” instead of agreeing to something I really didn’t want to do. We will all encounter frivolous moments of unfairness or encounter someone’s inner “meanie” spirt, but as we grow in Christ we have to learn how to let go in giving those situations to God.
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14
Think about all the precious times we could have been doing something enjoyable, yet we were focusing on what was hurtful that someone said. Right then in there we chose to give that person our power; right then in there we gave slick comments more life than that of what was spoken in God’s word of who we are and what he can manifest in our lives for his glory. A person’s actions and behaviors towards others in being meanspirited shares more about them individually than it does the person they inflicted with in their wrath. I will admit that this is a struggle for me, I am trusting God with this myself in learning how to stop ruminating in giving little insignificant gestures of hurt more attention than they should have. I’ve learned that even in forgiveness, empathy, and grace you can speak up for yourself assertively without fear of conflict. There are some instances that we may have to distance ourselves from the nonsense of others when certain harmful actions are repeated to regain our peace to stop behavior of ruminating. I tell you this as an admittedly sensitive soul we gain more peace when we allow certain offenses to roll off like water off a duck’s back. As my daughter had her on revelation from the incident at the playground in later reciprocating me with a hug back we moved on together in planning the future of our next walking adventure. Is there an incident, problem, or an action that someone said or did that deep down you know you’re ruminating over? I trust that you will give it to God in discovering true peace and joy to stop ruminating in letting it go. Be blessed Beautiful!
Purpose Filled Mommy with Minimarie 