A Valentine for the Bully

Image by Will Wallace at Creation Swap

I tend to see prayer as a fairly simple, yet very meaningful process.  Yet, it is good for me to THINK a little deeper about the dynamics of prayer.  Recently I was provided the following illustration: Why do we give a valentine to each kid in class, including the kid that is not so nice to us?  

Next she told us to think of someone in our life that is difficult to love.

I found that the first person to come to mind was not actually difficult to love, just difficult to get along with.  But, I dug deeper and found someone.  

This woman isn't someone I know personally, but someone that has touched my life in a very personal way... a very painful way.  A person who probably stands alone in the classification of someone who I have claimed to actually hate.  

Now that I think about it, I have probably allowed that hate because I do not know her personally.  The only things I know about her seem to relate to how she hurt me.

But, despite the place this person holds in my memory, I did what I was told.  I prayed for her.  I did it purposefully, and I did it with all my heart.  And, it lifted a weight.

It is amazing how, while writing about it now, my heart wants to hold onto the pain instead of embracing forgiveness.  So, I will turn again to the scripture I prayed that morning, and I will pray it again.

 I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers.  I pray that  the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation  in your growing knowledge of him,  – since the eyes of your  heart have been enlightened  – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling,  what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints,  and what is the incomparable  greatness of his power toward  us who believe, as displayed in  the exercise of his immense strength. ^{(Ephesians 1:16-19)}

For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of  all patience and steadfastness, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.  (Colossians 1:9-12)

While my understanding is that the author, in both cases, is making this prayer because he knows his audience is made up of believers, it still works for me.  I do not know if this person who hurt me is a believer.  I do not know where she started, and I do not know how far she has come since our paths crossed.  

BUT... I do know that I can pray that her heart is open, and that He will give her spiritual wisdom and revelation in her growing knowledge of Him.  I do know that I would want her to live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects, growing, being strengthened, and joyful in giving thanks to God.  

So, if nothing else, I will pray with my whole heart for her to come to Him.