What is Discipleship? How do we get there?

In order to find discipleship, one must give it first. You cannot expect discipleship if you don't give it in return. (Though most would say that's the Christlike thing to do). When we interact with people w establish a medium of trust. That trust can either be increased to friendship or it can drop to where someone feels bitterness and heartache. Most of the time this pain is circumstantiated where no harm is meant to be done. However, in the cases where harm is meant, we are told to forgive anyway. This is hard to do. I struggle with forgiving my enemies.

Brigham Young said "He who takes offense when offense is not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool."

I mention this as there have been people which I have felt robbed me of my trust in them. At first, I was sad, then I became mad and those emotions have festered in my heart. It destroyed me and my anger rose as it became deeply rooted within me. I have come to this conclusion. Those who offend others shall be judged, I will also be judged for not forgiving them. God forgave Israel many times. Am I greater than God?

No, I am not. If that is the case, how much more is required of me in this short mortal existence I live? As an imperfect being, I experience many emotions. It is okay to be angry. It is okay to be sad. It is okay to feel the multiple emotions we have. God definitely felt them. In this test of life, we may not like fools but even fools can see they're foolish. As we are imperfect and we all get offended we are all fools. We must not be fools.

I know this is preaching to the choir. We all know the basics of right and wrong. This is why we need each other as much as we need God. We ultimately all want the same goal: to be happy. Unfortunately, we know that happiness through sadness. One may ask, ""How can we be happy when someone has done us wrong?"

The answer is simple. The flesh is weak and applying it is difficult. Treat them with kindness and let it go. The next question could be, "How can I be kind but firm?" The answer is not letting our anger to fester. We can have righteous anger but we must present the facts, use "I feel" statements and give the other party a chance to respond and to listen without blocking them out. Another discovery I have made is that the other party suffers injustice by not treating them well. Those people will think they'll never achieve happiness whether they do right or wrong. If we think in that perspective that's unfair to them.