15 Ways Hurting People Hurt People

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We need to break the cycle of hurting people who hurt people. (Flickr/Creative Commons)

It is an old adage that "hurt people hurt people."








Because of their pain, ordinary words are often misinterpreted to mean something negative toward them. Therefore, they are extremely sensitive and act out of pain instead of reality.




Often hurt people can cry "racism," "sexism," "homophobia," or often use the words "unjust" or "unfair" to describe the way they are being treated, even if there is no truth to this. That is not to say that sometimes there really is racism or sexism in some instances; this is just used as an example.

Hurt people have a hard time entering into a trusting relationship. Hurt people often carry around a suspicious spirit.




For example, if a girl was raped by a man when she was 12 years old, unless she forgives that man and allows Christ to heal her heart and allay her fears, in that particular area of her life (sexuality with a man) her emotional growth will stop. Even when she reaches her later years, she may still have the emotional maturity of a 12 year-old.



8. Hurt people often erupt with inappropriate emotion because particular words, actions, or circumstances "touch" and "trigger" past woundedness

I have been in situations with people in which there was a gross overreaction to a word I spoke or an action that was taken. Although I was shocked and thought this reaction came "out of left field," it was really the person responding to an accumulation of years of hurt and pain that could not help but spill over in various situations.

I myself have been in situations where I felt hurt, troubled, or where I overreacted to something because it touched a nerve with what I was still dealing with because of a wound I received in the past. In these situations I have attempted to reason through the situation as objectively as I could with much prayer and introspection so I would not say or do anything damaging to another person or myself.


Often, ministers are not motivated by a love for Jesus, but by a drive to accomplish.


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