Spiritual Sounding Board – This is our place to gather and share in an open format. Feel free to join in the discussion.
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This is your place to share your church struggles and concerns.
Let’s also use it as a time to encourage one another spiritually.
What have you found spiritually encouraging lately?
Do you have any special Bible verses to share, any YouTube songs that you have found uplifting?
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Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
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Photo Credit: Hannah Smith
Spiritual Sounding Board 
Daisy,
It sounds like you had more years of bullying to deal with than I did. For me, it mostly stopped once I got into high school. I was one of the band geeks, and we were sort of in our own little world. I may have had a handful (or less) of real friends, but I had them, which helped. One silver lining to come out of my experience was that I became largely immune to peer pressure. I couldn’t care less what any of the “popular” kids thought or did, or what was supposed to be cool.
I’ve never been bullied at work, but I have seen it up close at least once. The manager in question ended up being fired herself not long after.
*And by abuse, I don’t always even mean physical abuse. I’ve had people manipulate me or constantly guilt trip me out of my time, money, favors, etc. Abuse and exploitation takes many forms.
I went through this during college and some months after graduation with someone I tried being close friends with. I finally had to accept that this person simply wasn’t safe, and had too many issues to deal with.
“Another book some Christians find helpful is “Boundaries” by Cloud and Townsend, which I guess is okay, but the liberal sprinkling of Bible verses every other sentence was something I found distracting.”
This book actually helped me process a bunch of crap I was struggling through at the time. The anger, bitterness, feeling manipulated and betrayed. I struggled to forgive and let go, if only for myself.
When it comes to the Bible, I totally agree that a soft answer can turn away wrath in some situations, but discernment is needed. A lot of those statements are general principles, which always admit for exceptions. For me the most important thing to learn was that there is a difference between being persecuted for following Christ, and being on the receiving end of standard sinful bullying. The former sometimes calls for a response of perseverance depending on the situation, while justice requires the latter to always be opposed.
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