The Hurts of the Heart

There are physical hurts in life, accidents, illness, financial misfortunes, which men often manage to survive. But there are hurts of the heart that pull people down in deep discouragement, sometimes more damaging than physical factors⎯people who are misunderstood, maligned; whose motives are misjudged. There are those whose friends fail them; those whose loved ones prove faithless. There are those whose words and manner are misunderstood by those they live and work with⎯and there are those whose humor is misunderstood⎯a humor that was not meant to hurt. Sometimes we speak without thinking and find the effect to be altogether not what we would have wanted. And sometimes even with family and friends there are clashes of personality, or pride, or simply differences of approach that prevent even loved ones from understanding each other. Oh, how we wish sometimes we hadn’t said some things, and hadn’t done some things⎯that we hadn’t given thoughtless hurt to someone⎯or even some slight. As Sir Walter Scott said it:

“Thoughts, from the tongue that slowly part,

Glance quick as lightening through the heart.”¹

So many misunderstood⎯so many with problems, sorrows, disappointments, frustrations, hurts of the heart! We are not, any of us, always as we ought to be, or all we could become. We live often by trial and error, and there is no perfection in any one of us. And no matter what physical comforts we have, or what success in other ways, these will not make life happy when there are hurts of the heart. One of the greatest accomplishments in this world would be that of lifting human hearts. Blessed are they who are kind and considerate of the feelings of other people. Blessed are they who understand and appreciate and encourage others, and help to lift their lives and to heal hurts of the heart. Surely God will reward kindness more surely than he will reward much else without it.