Is it a struggle to be the bigger person?

I feel a need to talk today about something that I personally deal with from time to time. For some reason, I feel today that somebody needs a little encouragement in this area. Let me ask you something? Do you ever struggle when you think you have done something right, handled a situation correctly, treated a person the right way, done the job correctly, yet there is still criticism and people spread lies about you? Can I get an amen, or are you so strong in your self confidence that this never bothers you? People can say what they want, you know the truth, so that’s all that matters. If this is you, man do I applaud you! I however, do not find myself that strong of a person. Full confession here! A couple of times in my life this has happened and people have tried to destroy my credibility in order to gain. Gain what you ask? I don’t know, popularity, people to their side, people to support them? It’s been a plethora of reasons I suppose. One constant in my life has been my mom. Every single time she says to me hold your head high, keep your mouth shut, the truth will come out in the end. One particular time this happened, and she was so right. It took years, and might I add that I am not always the most patient person, but thankfully, I did what she said, kept my mouth shut, and the truth did indeed come out.

Let me encourage you if this is where you find yourself today. I want to tell you a story. I will not do this story justice, but let me try. There was a kingdom years ago and the king was a very proud man. He liked to show off what he had. Not a very humble man. He wanted to show off his beautiful queen but she refused to be a trophy wife so she refused. This angered him so he decided to replace his queen. He ordered his servants to go out in the land and find the most beautiful girl they could find and bring her to the kingdom. The girl they chose was young and beautiful, an orphan girl who was being raised by her uncle. She was very scared of the king and not at all sure why she had been chosen and removed yet again from her family. One day as her uncle is coming to the kingdom he overhears two of the king’s guards plotting to assassinate the king so he tells his niece that she must warn the king. She sends word to the king through his right hand man. The right hand man wants all the glory so he doesn’t tell the king how he finds out about this plot, and takes the glory and gifts and applause from the king for saving his life. Not only does he take the glory, he then plots to kill the queen’s uncle who in actuality is the one who saved the king’s life. This goes on for some time and the king’s right hand man actually gets the king’s authority to kill this man and all his people, not knowing he is in fact the queen’s uncle. The queen is too afraid to go to the king to tell him it was her uncle and beg for his life to be spared and that of their people. Back in those times, there was written accounts of everything that went on through the kingdom. One night, the king cannot sleep so he asks to be read from these boring notes in hopes of falling asleep. Wouldn’t you know it, but somebody had overheard this man telling the queen she must warn the king, and save his life, and it is written in those daily notes. The king hears this. Long story short, this man’s life is spared, he’s made a great man in the kingdom and guess whose life ends up getting taken? The man who took all the credit for saving the king’s life and tried to kill the man who had actually saved it. Talk about sitting by and keeping your mouth shut. First the man saves the king’s life, he’s given no credit, but in the meantime there is a plot to kill the man. I can’t say that I would have been strong enough to keep my mouth shut if there was a plot to kill me, but look at the outcome in this story. Not only was this man’s life spared, he was made a very powerful man in this kingdom in the end. So was it worth being the bigger person after all?

I didn’t tell you this when I started because I wanted to keep your attention, but this is in fact the story of Queen Esther in the Bible. It has resonated with me this week over some situations in my life that I am struggling with because I feel I did the right thing, but people are questioning my intentions and it’s getting to me. I know myself though, and I know I tried very hard to do right and be a good person so once again, I shall simply keep my mouth shut and trust that in the end, the truth will be revealed. If you find yourself in a similar situation, please take heart that when we do right, we reap right. It may seem like the people who have wronged you are winning, but they won’t if we stay on the right path and live an upstanding life to those around us! I hope you will be encouraged today to keep doing the right thing! It will be worth it in the end.

With love for you all,

Shauna