Praying for my enemies

Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who persecute you. - Christ

Today I have been reminded again how praying for my enemies can change things. I'm sure you know what I mean. But it is strange. There's that woman next door who yelled at my son and threatened to call the cops on him when he was a little thing and had the bad sense to go into her yard. The same one whose dog has bit both me and my daughter -- more than once each -- and she won't even apologize or control her dog. (Fortunately, it's one of those little dust mop dogs.) Then there's that old lady across the street who only asks about my children as a convenient starting point for criticizing how I'm raising them, as predictable as clockwork when I see her. It's really easy to resent things like that. They grind my nerves at times.

It's strange how different those same people look after praying for them. The woman next door, the owner of the dust mop with dreams of growing up to be a guard dog, turns into a woman struggling to keep her job and take care of her husband, a disabled fellow whose medication interferes with his mind. She becomes a woman whose only sure companionship at home is a certain spoiled dust mop of a dog. Even the dog looks a little different. The woman across the street -- the one with a little too much to say about my business -- has a heart condition, is quite old, and is in failing health.

Strange how different everything looks after praying. It reminds me of the big storm we had yesterday. It took the edge off the summer heat.