The benefits of not returning evil for evil

I am a little uncertain about writing about this topic,  but I guess my son told me that I should do more writing......so......

Anyway,  sometimes in life,  you have to LIVE and walk just by pure faith.

I was thinking of a little bird that is peeking out of its shell at the world trying to come out and every time she does she gets hit by a hammer (beat up, black eyes, the whole nine yards) and so she retreats back into her shell.
Each time she tries to go back out again,  it takes a TREMENDOUS amount of faith (since she has been beat up so much previously).
So that's  pretty much where I'm at in my life right now.  I have hatred spewed at me on a regular basis.  :(.
I know God has a purpose for this and I have a few ideas about this, but I will remain quiet on this for now.
I have to tell you that I was falling for the temptation last night to return hatred for hatred.  That is a short path to hell, let me tell you!  If you are a Believer, hating someone is absolute torment!   Although, forgiving is hard, it is much preferable to retribution and hatred because hatred spawns more evil little hatred babies until you are just one miserable mess of a person!  Yes,  I've been there!!!  It's not fun!
So, the way out of the demon's domain of any kind of hatred, (including self-loathing)- been there, too (often as a matter of fact).....is so simple that you just want to dismiss it....

Give me Snow more of that Manna!

photo by Laura Vromann

I was thinking that God's grace, mercy and peace are like the Manna the Israelites picked up.
If you try to grab it, hang on to it for yourself, and refuse to give it away,  it will become rotten....And in it becoming rotten, your refusal to forgive will make you rotten....like rotten fruit, so bad, it can't be eaten.