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THE TRAP OF OFFENCE

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LIFE has so many different traps that seek to keep us in our past or in cycles of unproductive activities and thought patterns. It’s imperative for each one of us to mature and outgrow certain retrogressive behaviours and thought patterns in order to go forward in life.

Life is too short to be involved in unproductive childish or immature behaviours. Many people end up being failures in life because of the blame game, and the failure to take responsibility for their own responses or reactions to issues of life and relationships.

Wisdom demands that we take responsibility for the direction our life is taking. When we choose to completely blame others for our mess, we have signed up for cycles of failure. Our lives should always be in a state of being responsible, accountable and answerable. Responsibility is a social force that binds one to the consequences of their thoughts, words and actions.


Life will always avail us many opportunities to be offended. Offences will always come to each one of us one way or the other. How we respond to offence is really what matters, and will always expose the level of our maturity or immaturity. Farlex’s dictionary defines offence as ‘the state of being offended or displeased’. It’s the cause or occasion of stumbling or sin. To stumble is to trip in walking in anyway or to endanger a fall, or to stagger because of a false step. Offence will cause us to take false steps in life, which may in turn endanger our purpose and destiny. To take offence is to feel, or assume to be injured or affronted; to become angry or hostile. It is to feel wounded by the words or actions of others.


Offence is a strong emotion, a feeling that is oriented towards some real or supposed grievance or hurt. An offended person usually also feels hurt, wounded, unappreciated or disrespected. This could be real or just imagined, due to the way they perceive the situation, words or actions of others.


They then embrace hurt feelings, stop relating with others or become shallow in their relationships. Offence brings limitations to our progress in life and distorts the way we view ourselves and others. We must be careful not to allow petty things to cause resentment to take root in our lives. Usually when we believe that someone has offended us, we also become resentful towards that person and everything that has to do with them.

This is a trap that keeps our minds and emotions trapped in a circumstance or incidence, and ultimately may kill our creativity and our joy levels in life.
 The first step in learning how to deal with our offence, anger or resentment is developing a sincere desire to change. Until we are willing to do something about it, nothing will change. Second we must train ourselves to deal with offence before the feelings of anger overwhelm us by sometimes realising that the problems are not as big as we think they are; and learning to just laugh at certain issues.
The third thing to do when you feel offended is to get more information on that particular issue. Many times we assume that certain things are happening or certain actions or words mean this or that, when in actual fact things are not happening the way we think.

However, when we get more information on the matter, our thoughts and feelings may change. We must never jump to simplistic conclusions about the situation or person who is making us feel offended or angry. As a matter of fact, we must train ourselves to always view situations or people in a positive way. This will help us rise above the spirit of offence that has spiritually, emotionally, mentally, socially, economically and politically stagnated many individuals, families, communities and nations.


We all experience situations of misunderstanding, hurt, pain and suffering; some of us are able to handle it and respond to this better than others. Some of us become deeply offended, angry, bitter and cynical about life, and yet others who experience the same problems become happy and better humans. The answer lies in learning to forgive ourselves for reacting badly, and others who seemingly offended us.
To forgive is not usually easy, because it carries the act of absorbing the guilt of the offender, while at the same time letting them go free; yet it is the right thing to do. Forgiveness is costly because it entails that justice may not always be fulfilled. It is always better to forgive someone than to incubate hatred, anger and resentment; because the price of unforgiveness is high.

Harboured resentment will ultimately corrode a disposition, elevate blood pressure, upset the digestive system, ulcerate a stomach and even bring on a nervous breakdown. Life is too short and precious to live it in the retrogressive zone of offence, anger and resentment. We must, therefore, choose to free ourselves from the devastating trap of offence.

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