But.......he did it too!

How many times have those of us as parents heard this?

Mom: "Why did you do that?"
Child: "He made a face at me/ laughed at me/ looked at me, so I punched him!"
Mom: "I don't care what he did, I care about what you did!"

We have all had to hear it, and as parents say it, "if everyone else jumped off a bridge......."

I was going through my bible studies this morning and came across some scriptures that, oddly enough, had nothing to do with what I was studying!
Funny how He can get to you, no matter where you're at!
And I got to thinking, (again?!) , everyone has someone in their life who treats them like crap, no matter how hard you try and show them you are a good person, they still walk all over you, use you, and sometimes are just down right mean to you. And what is our first reaction to that treatment?
"Well if that's how you are going to be! watch this! I'm going to be worse!"

If you have read much of this blog, you know I have someone in my life like that, someone that no matter how hard I try, and how much I just "take it" it doesn't seem to get any better. And I have spent many, many years reacting to that treatment.
Now  you know I have prayed about it, wrote blog posts about changing my attitude to try and change theirs, and still, there is nothing changing. I'm still hated. I get the feeling there is literally nothing else I can do.

But this morning, I was reading the bible, verses in Zechariah, about the coming of the Messiah, (absolutely nothing to do with my situation, I thought) ,and realized my reactions to their treatment had to stop. It doesn't matter what "they" did, it doesn't matter what "they" said, it matters what "I" did, what "I" said. How "I" reacted to "their" behavior.

Then I got this goofy picture in my head of me standing before Him "but did you see what they did to me??????" and me getting that same, crossed armed, angry exasperated, look that I give my kids when they say it.

Um, ok, I get it.Fine!

My trip through scriptures was all about Christ's triumphant ride into Jerusalem, and the message I got out of it was, "I don't care what everyone else is doing", I think since it is so close to Easter and the celebration of "He is risen!" that made me think of everything He had to go through to get there.
Isaiah 53:7
 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

Mathew 26:63
 But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.

John 19:10
 Pilate therefore saith unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to release thee, and have power to crucify thee?

I haven't been through ANYTHING as bad as what Jesus knew was coming. And yet, he did not speak. He knew His God would vindicate Him. 

 It amazes me how those messages can come through no matter what!
Thank you Jesus he can work with even the slowest of people!

So next time I want to react to bad treatment, I think I'll just pull up that image into my mind again, me, trying to defend myself, to the One who knows and sees it all!