About hate..........

In my 48 years, I have learned much about H-A-T-E.

I could have hate for the person who molested me when I was a child.

I could have hate for the person(s) who sexually abused my brother, the selfish father who died and left him at the tender age of 15 because of his 10-pk-a-day cigarette habit causing my brother to go into a downward spiral we could not bring him out of, and for the girlfriend who cheated on him and told him she was leaving him for a real man, all of which caused him to committ suicide at only 23 years old.  Let me tell you, my life has NEVER been the same.

I could have hate for the person who drugged, raped, and tortured my aunt beating her black and blue and sticking lit cigarettes to her and he got away with it.

I could have hate for the alcoholic husband who beat my aunt so so badly she lay in her bed for several days hemorraging to death and he got away with it.

I could have hate for the person(s) who caused the death of two close friends, Lurie Ann and Phil, who were run over in two separate incidents by drunk drivers while they were walking down the side of the road.

I could have hate for the person who ran head-on into two family members, Wanda and Jerry, who had just left their friends house in another town at a decent time one September night on their motorcycle headed home to Auburn so they could be in church on time the next morning.  She had a beautiful young son who had to grow up without her.  Did I mention this person who ran into them head-on was drinking and both our cousin and her husband died, but the drunk driver only served 14 months?

I could have hate for the drunk driver who hit another cousin, Dennis, on his motorcycle knocking him 50 feet into the air and killing him instantly.

I could have hate for my former daughter-in-law who made our lives a living hell from 2003 until very recently causing both my son and us very intense unimaginable pain when she asked for a divorce and took him to court repeatedly to get money she shouldn't have been entitled to, but the courts gave it to her anyway adding more onto it making our financial situation so bad we barely had groceries at times.

There are probably many more incidents I am not even thinking of because it is so late right now, but I have learned that hate makes a person bitter.  It eats away at your insides until there is hardly anything left and what small bit is left makes people not want to be around you because when you hate someone you tend to bitch and complain about them all the time.  It will drive people away from you.  The scriptures tell us to be forgiven, we have to forgive.  I need for my soul to be at peace and be healed.  I have chosen forgiveness as my path.  I didn't do it for the people who have wronged my loved ones, friends, and myself, I did it for me.  When you forgive, it releases the control the person you are harboring hate against from having control over you.  It is very freeing.  I choose to be free.  Hate shows immaturity.  Forgiveness shows maturity.