One day my daughter told me that whenever someone did something thoughtless or unkind to her, she felt justified in being hurt and angry. It was the other person’s fault, not hers, she reasoned, and therefore she had a right to be upset.
But then my daughter noticed something. She recognized how her reactions in these instances were actually connected to a lack of self-worth she was harboring. She realized that to the degree she understood her true identity as the complete and perfect child of God, and therefore entirely good, the actions of other people would not hurt her.
In Mary Baker Eddy’s Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, an article titled “Taking Offense” says: “Nothing short of our own errors should offend us. He who can wilfully attempt to injure another, is an object of pity rather than of resentment; while it is a question in my mind, whether there is enough of a flatterer, a fool, or a liar, to offend a whole-souled woman” (p. 224).
