Misunderstood?

Ever been misunderstood?

There was once an old couple in their 90's sitting on their veranda gently rocking back and forth in their rocking chairs.

The old man looked at his wife and sighed - 'I'm so proud of her' he thought.

He gently put his hand over and held his wife's and said:- "I'm so proud of you"

"AY!" was the reply he received.

So he gently put his hand over and held his wife's and said a bit louder:- "I'm so proud of you"

"AY AY What did ya say?" was the reply.

So trying again, he gently put his hand over and held his wife's and said really loudly "I'M SO PROUD OF YOU."

She turned to him, glared and said "YES! AND I'M TIRED OF YOU TOO"

Being misunderstood can be really terrible - misunderstandings can be trivial and they can also be very serious indeed - Misunderstandings have caused job losses, people leaving churches, marriage breakups and even wars.

When we are misunderstood something inside of us craves to put it right and sometimes we can't and so the feeling of frustration can sometimes lead to depression and even suicide - so you see misunderstanding can have serious and sometimes deadly implications.

Trying to put misunderstandings right can also lead to disaster - people doing the misunderstanding sometimes don't want to hear what you have to say - some people approach the problem and try to explain why it all happened but unfortunately some people just don't want to hear what we have to say.

For example - a child is called out at school for bulling another - BUT the child in question was not the child doing the bullying - no matter how hard the child tries to explain - sometimes the teacher/principal doesn't want to know - and the child is punished for something they didn't do.

So how do we cope with being misunderstood?

Well, we certainly have to try to put it right - Jesus said in Matthew:-

"If another person sins against you (and this includes misunderstandings) go privately to them and point out the offence"

But sometimes no amount of talking and pleading can help in a situation like that.

Once we have tried to put it right - and the person/s invloved don't or won't listen to you, then really there is not much we can do - we have to trust our Lord and Saviour who knows our thoughts, minds and motives. We have to throw all out troubles on Him - after all he knows more of us than we do ourselves.

We need to tell Him openly and honestly - cast our burden of frustration onto Him and let Him handle it.

If anyone was misunderstood it was Jesus - he went through His life being misunderstood - even by those who claimed to know Him best.

So if anyone knows about misunderstandings it is Jesus - "The Author and Finisher of our Faith".

So if you have done everything you can then throw your cares onto his shoulders - And then simply trust Him to do the rest. He carried the burden of the cross and all of your sins on His shoulders - he understands your frustrations, your worries and your cares.

We should all learn from misunderstandings though.

Is there someone who feels like they have been misunderstood by us?

Maybe they have been misunderstood by people and they need a friend - may we are that friend.

Jesus loved us enough to go to Calvary - Do we love him enough to be a friend of the friendless, a listener to maybe someone who has no one to turn to.

Jesus wants us to come to Him with our burdens - he is the only one really who understands what we are going through.