Hating well

Hate means "intense hostility and aversion, usually deriving from fear, anger.....extreme, intense or passionate dislike."


Since our kids were small, we have taught them not to lightly say "I hate ........".  When they were really little, they thought "hate" was a bad word!  We taught them to hate Satan and sin, but nothing else.  Hate is a very strong word/emotion and should be used as sparingly as possible.


As they've grown, this has seemed kind of extreme and we've pretty much let it go.  Consequently, I find myself saying things like "ugh, I hate this traffic!", "I hate cleaning the bathroom!", or "I hate it when that happens!".  I have let my own rule go out the window, and of course, my kids repeat what I say and I have been disturbed by how many things they "hate" lately.


In the excellent book, "Nine Things You Simply Must Do (to succeed in life and love) by Dr. Henry Cloud, one of his nine things is to "hate well".  We should hate some things.  We should hate lying.  God does.  We should hate pride.  God does.  We should hate evil.  God does.  We should hate murder.  God does.  We should hate dissension among brothers.  God does.  Basically, my simple rule for my kids when they were smaller was not too bad.  Hate Satan and sin.  That about sums it up.


I want to hate well and I want my children to also.  I can't think of any words that would hurt me more than to hear one of my loved ones tell me they hate me.  I don't want them to get into the habit of saying they hate this and hate that.  It kind of sounds like complaining and we know how God feels about complaining.  Punishable by death in the Old Testament!


  I am going to try to remember not to lightly throw around the word hate and hopefully, be able to re-teach my kids the same.


Let's hate well!


Miriam