Another step to living peaceful lives is to refuse to be an offended person. It is very easy to take offence at what someone says or does, whether they mean to upset us or not. R. H. Lelchuk says, ‘People who get offended operate on a purely emotional level fostered by their insecurity.’ When we are easily offended, we refuse to accept apologies and are always on the lookout for someone to upset us. We dwell on what has happened; we refuse to forgive. We are touchy, tetchy people because we are not secure in God’s love and ability to defend us and right all wrongs.
H. Lelchuk goes on to say, ‘Being easily offended is a lot like worry; it keeps you busy and achieves nothing.’ That’s not quite true, because what it does achieve is to keep us without peace. If we want to live peaceful lives, we must let go of being offended and move on to love even our enemies.
