Prevent Injustice

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Elie Wiesel

1. This applies to both social and personal injustice.  We must stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves (kids, animals, etc.) and those we stand behind (religious freedom, homeless, etc.). However, one of the biggest forms of injustice is personal injustice.  When someone puts you down or makes you feel lesser than, it is an injustice – an untruth – and it is wrong, under any circumstance.  Protesting these injustices head on  does prevent injustice in the future if the lines are drawn immediately and enforced every time it happens.
2. Sometimes things are said in the heat of the moment that the person doesn’t really mean.  It isn’t right, but if that is the only time it is said and the person apologizes, it is not a pattern.
3. When someone or several people speak these kinds of messages into your life on a regular basis, it is a form of abuse and a lack of concern for you as a person.  It is imperative to not allow this to happen from the beginning of any relationship.  You must protest and rebuke the comment.  (*) This doesn’t entitle you to throw back the same kind of words or you’re both in the wrong.  Address the injustice – the comment – not the person.
4. If you allow someone to speak these kinds of statements into your life, it becomes a pattern and it will not stop unless it is addressed and corrected, which will take longer once it becomes habitual.
5. Taking a stand and protesting verbal abuse and attacks are imperative to becoming who God made you to be and they set a very clear boundary of what is and will be accepted in the relationship.
6. Even when words have come out in an argument, but especially if it has been said repetitively, it is completely necessary to protest the validity of the comment inside your own heart and mind.  Back it up with Scripture.  Beautiful affirmations abound of God’s love for you and your worth in the Bible.  For those of us who have lived with abuse for many years, it will take time and diligence to change the messages that have been planted and cultivated in our minds, but they cannot be allowed to continue to grow and flourish.  You and your purpose are too valuable to lose to untruths and hatred.

~ Joanna Lynn

(*) For some, the words are accompanied with physical and/or sexual abuse as well.  There may also be control issues happening in the relationship that can turn dangerous very quickly.  In these circumstances especially, you must get help.  There is always a way out.   your abuser will do everything in their power to convince you this isn’t true, but it is.  It might take a little time to figure out what to do or who to go to in controlling situations, but be sure to do it as soon as possible.  In physical and sexual abuse situations, get out as soon as possible.  Call the police, move away from the residence, run to a neighbors.  It is imperative to get out as soon as possible.  No one should be abused.  God never intended or condones abuse in a relationship to another living creature and abuse can turn deadly at any given moment.