I was scrolling through Instagram one day on my phone as one often does within intermittent periods of the day when I stopped and saw the most horrifying sight of a girl with skin stretched and shedding of her body due to a condition that she was born with at birth. Her parents, unable to take care of her for reasons not determined, they left her at a nearby orphanage.

One day, when she was maybe four years old, another child came in to visit the orphanage with her parents and started hugging her, asking her parents if they could take her home. The child’s mother happened to be a doctor – so with the ability to take care of a child with this condition, they adopted her.

One day, when they were out and about, a group of people saw her deformity and spit on her and called her names. Her now mother, was very upset. “Doesn’t that bother you?” she asked the little girl but she simply replied…

“No, it doesn’t bother me. Why should it? After all, it’s their problem, not mine.”

It hit home and even weeks after reading this story, I still have those words etched in my brain. “It’s their problem, not mine…”

You know when people treat you badly, and you let that resentment and bitterness set in, you live regretfully because you wonder “what is it that I could do?” but you need to realize that how people treat you is not in your control, you only have control over how you react and how you let it effect you.

When we look in the mirror, maybe we don’t see outward deformities like the little girl in this story, but we see something inside that makes us hate ourselves and live in comparison to others. Why am I not more like that girl? Why was I not enough for that one person? Why was I told these horrible things and they get to just move on and be happy?

Hurt people hurt people as they say. But Jesus takes that hurt and gives us the strength to move forward.

But it’s important to remember that how someone treats you is not your problem, and if you actually do have a “problem”, if they can’t treat you with love when they address it, then are they really loving you in a Christ-like way? Again, your reaction is the only thing you can control.

Remember that next time someone treats you as insignificant or makes you feel unworthy or is just trying to one-up you for no reasons only to make themselves feel better…

Remember the little girl who lived courageously above.

Remember that they got the problems and you don’t have to bear their burdens.