Blessing Each of You Who I May Have Wronged

"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (Luke 6:27-28)

This post is one that has been weighing on me for a few days now. I was reading a devotional the other day where it talked about checking under the hood. Anger is like the lights on a dashboard. They tell you something is going on under the hood. You must find out the source of the problem. A verse was tied to this devotional from Colossians 3:8: "But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips."

In the past year, I have had some instances come up where I did lash out at some people whether it was disagreements they had with how I handled blog posts, tweets, or how I seemed to go after some people because I thought what they were doing was wrong. Truthfully, in all of these cases, some people were hurt, including myself, and in reality, it was not worth it one bit. When I do Google searches on my name, some posts come up that talk about how I handled situations on my own blog and truthfully, I am not proud those posts show up for my name, but everyone has their own opinion to how they see things. I go back now and realize I should have never got involved in the comments and left it as is. It only hurt me in the end and this was not the first time I had it out with some online.

I had an incident in April where I was promoting the fact there was a Save Folgers KC Facebook page and I got into another heated debate with someone on Twitter about why I supported this initiative. It got ugly fast and as a result, I lost a few friendships from that incident where to this day, some of them still don't speak to me. Add the post I did on my own blog in June expressing why I felt there was not a need for another Social Media Club in KC to start and how I was ridiculed for taking a stand in expressing my opinion and you can see there has been an unfortunate pattern for most of this year of battling it out with many folks. It is not anything I am proud of and there are a few who continue to take jabs at me when they can.

However, as I have thought about what has happened in the past and some of the mistakes I made, Colossians 3:8 has come to my mind. In fact this verse alone is one that many of us should focus on during this time of the year when we are together with relatives and family as we all well know it is far too often that fights, arguments, etc. seem to happen when everyone gets together for the holidays.

I need to rid myself of anger and any malice I may have in my heart for some who I felt wronged me or I had a battle with this year. And to do that, I realize I need to pray and bless those who have not so good words for me and my actions this year. Also, a post by Danny Brown made me take a step back realizing whoever we criticize is Someone's Child. Behind the scenes, a wife, a kid, a parent, or a friend watch as their loved one takes heat.

So, this post is for a few who I will name here (first names, Twitter handles) and for anyone who may feel like they should go to someone they know and bless/love them even if there has been disagreements with this person. Life is too short to have grudges with others. By naming a few people here, I do not expect anything back in return unless some do want to extend the "olive branch" back to re-connect. Otherwise, I felt like the Lord was pressing on me that I needed to do this and He is right.

Kirk (@kcklo63), I have apologized to you in the past for my actions/disagreements on how I handled the Save Folgers KC discussion we had earlier this year. I know now that you just had some genuine questions about why I supported this initiative and we got into on Twitter in a way that got too personal. I hope we can re-connect down the road again maybe someday, but even if we don't, I want to wish you and your family blessings for the coming new year.

Renee (@Ms_Nene), You and I had a great friendship going before the Save Folgers KC incident went down and you did stand by my side sticking up for me many times through this mess. But, I did wrong in not stopping or heeding your request to stop engaging with others on this issue. It caused a lot of hurt for you and I apologize. I do want to wish you the very best for your new venture coming up and pray that God blesses it tremendously in the way he knows how.

Lisa (@lqualls4444), Mike (@wrytir), Jenn (@JennBailey), Steven (@whereisciao), Ed (@EdRoberts), and Jeff (@jeffisageek), I did you wrong in doing a post on my own blog about my thoughts/opinions asking why Social Media Club of Johnson County was started and causing a firestorm that many of you had to handle without knowing ahead of time that I was planning to post this message. I was part of the board at that time and should have respected the board's agreement to not speak out about this issue until the board was ready to do so. I jumped the gun and it was each of you who had to suffer the consequences. I know I have apologized before, but I want to extend my apologies again for that matter. I pray blessings on each of you as you continue to lead the SMCKC board into the new year and for each of you personally.

For anyone who may be reading this post and knows about the incident that went down over my blog post questioning the formation of SMCJoCo and how I resigned from the SMCKC board later, it was my fault for jumping the gun with my post ahead of time. When I realized the mess I had started by doing so, I came to the board apologizing for my action and requesting for them to make a decision on whether I should resign or not. It was decided I should do so and I accepted that fate. The board did not throw me under the bus. It was my own decision to resign due to my actions. I take responsibility for what transpired.

Paul (@paulevansmedia) and Sara (@sarasocialmedia), It has not been pretty between us for awhile now and I can understand why. A lot of hate and disagreements have transpired in the past from various incidents, but I feel it is time for me to realize there were things I have said that caused both of you hurt and lost trust. You had the right to start SMCJoCo and it got too personal when I had disagreements about why you started it. We may not always see eye to eye on past issues, but I do want to apologize for our clashes from the past and wish God's blessings on your business, on SMCJoCo's growth, and your personal lives. And I hope someday we can reconnect on better terms, Lord willing.

Chris (@chrisheuer) and Kristie (@kristiewells), The conversations I have had with each of you have never been very positive and I want to publicly apologize for my actions/ill thoughts towards both of you. You both have built a national organization of Social Media Clubs around the nation and done it on your own sweat and time. You should be proud of that fact and when you came to defense of when the SMCJoCo group was started, you were only sticking up for what you thought was right. I do apologize for any trouble I started and hope that understand my apology is sincere. I pray for blessings on each of you personally and professionally and for continued success for Social Media Club.

SMCKC Members, I let many of you down when I went out on a limb questioning why another SMC needed to be started in the KC area. I had my reasonings why I wrote the post at the time, but also realize now that my ramblings about another group starting and not looking at it in how this new group could be a benefit to the KC area is what caused a real mess. I represented all of you as a SMCKC board member and should have handled the situation in a much more professional manner. Instead I went out on my own to write my own blog post and strained relationships with many of you. Some of those relationships continue to be strained today and even though I may not be able to change your mind about how you feel about me, please know I do apologize. I pray for blessings on each of you for the new year and hope, Lord willing, we can re-connect in time. Thank you.

I may have forgot others who I have had a few disagreements with or that I angered so much that they wanted nothing to do with me again and for those people, I apologize for my anger, slander, and any malice I had towards you. I have messed up in the past and want to move forward with a clear conscience in my mind knowing I have extended my apologies towards those I may have wronged in some way. I do not expect anyone to return the favor or want to re-connect if they choose to not do so. I do know that for God to forgive me, I need to forgive or ask for forgiveness (extend my apologies) to anyone who may need to hear it. And that is what I wanted to do with this post.

Thank you for taking time to read this post and I want to extend blessings to each of you during these holidays and pray that you will find good tidings into the new year.