Grudges only get started in our heart if we grant them permission.
But once the seeds are granted that fertile soil, oh, do they grow.
Grudges devour churches, friendships, healthy bodies, and the best of our days that God has laid out for us.
We harbor tiny, secret grudges against adult siblings and extended family.
Grudges use up physical energy and derail our common sense.
All of these results begin with our simple nurture as a host heart. What begins as two opposing positions in a situation does not get talked through with love, even with an agreement to disagree (again, with love and respect for each other's right to position). It gets stalemated into hard feelings.
Then, time + finding one other person to agree with your position = the sprouting of a new grudge.
And away it grows, fueled by the replaying of why you are right, thus making the other person wrong.
The new grudge will either: grow away into something big and nasty, trying to create permanent division or go away because we simply quit granting permission to our heart to host it.
It's our call.
