The Hammered Rock

A Sister on another post shared this, I thought it was a good example of the unseen damage that is done by those who are injuring us a little at a time, death by a thousand cuts, thinking that their actions and attitudes are really just little things, most of the time they don't even think about what they are doing, they become habits.

"Look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before." ~Jacob A. Riis

Trust is removed over a long period of time in which the friend or relative have engaged in mocking, minimizing and devaluing their target. When trust has been destroyed over a period of many years, there is very often no way of getting it back.

Perhaps it would be good to evaluate how we treat people, before we engage in attitudes of superiority that causes us chip away at the relationship.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
"9 Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.
10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.
11 Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?
12 And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart."

Micah 7:5-6
"Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house."

When we find a friend who can be trusted we have found a great treasure. Their desire is to help us be the best that we can be, accepting us as we are, even enjoying our talents and gifts.

May we be this kind of friend to those the Lord brings in our path.