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Hurt feelings don’t have to hang around
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
One day as I was walking down the sidewalk, I saw a woman I didn’t know coming toward me. She had a big smile on her face, and I couldn’t help but smile back at her. As she came closer, she approached me and said, “Oh! You’re going to have a baby!” My smile quickly faded and I shook my head and said, “No, I’m not pregnant.” After apologizing, she smiled awkwardly and continued walking. As I headed on my way, my head filled with negative thoughts. Did I really look pregnant? Was my shirt too tight? Was this woman just crazy? Should I have eaten that piece of candy after lunch?
When I told a friend about it, she laughed. It was silly. I was actually quite small and had been an avid distance runner for almost 20 years. I had proper eating habits and had even had a healing of anorexia almost ten years earlier. But even after a giggle, the comment still bothered me.
As a student of Christian Science, I’ve always turned to prayer for healing. Whether it was a headache, an issue with body image, or hurt feelings, I knew turning to God was where I could always find comfort and freedom from illness or unhappiness. And I’ve learned that although God is speaking to us all the time, it’s often helpful just to get quiet enough to listen for His voice. So I decided to listen, to calm the negative thoughts I had about the encounter through prayer and appreciate what I knew to be spiritually true about my fellow men and women.
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