Thank you for taking the time to respond, I appreciate it.

The key may be:”those people who actually want to better themselves & want to seek God, need to be accepted.”

I will work on the premise of “those who seek God”. If these persons truly seek God then I will accommodate their desire to the best of what God gives me. I do not know if I have forgiven them, it is only recently that I came to terms with the toll the years have taken on me. Not at all to the extent of Corrie Ten Boom, but in my experience, devastating. I am still recovering emotionally and need my distance from them until I am strong enough.

The thing is, Daniel, once betrayed is bad enough, but years of betrayal catches up with a person. I am glad God brought things to a head and I now know where I stand, and where I am going. Too bad all those wasted years, but I’m sure I grew in ways that will sustain me in the future.

I have no problem with any of the above, as that is what I do when around these particular people, they never know how I truly feel. Nevertheless, I feel like a phony, smiling etc, the phony hugs and acting as if nothing is wrong. Because I came close to hating them. And I took that “almost hate” feeling and directed it at me. Dumb, eh?
But no longer!!I am thankful that with the help and advice of a wonderful person,(not a Christian) I was able to turn my life around emotionally and learn to love myself again. Thanks to my friend, I chose to look at the cup half full instead of half empty. Look at things in a positive light (although I still work on that).

Do people feel welcome around me? I believe so. God has given me a great love for mankind and people see it, feel it and are blessed as God loves them through me. That’s what I love to do!!

Even in the writing of this, God is giving me clarity on how to deal with the situation I first approached you with and solved the problem for me.

He’ll take care of everything and see that those people will either stay out of my life forever or until His time. And He will give me His strength and wisdom accordingly.

You see, Daniel, truly I am blessed. God is with me and with all of us.

Hope this reaches you. I understand what you’re saying… and respect the fact that you don’t want to be phony or fake around people.

If you are in a place, that you feel that physical touches can affect you negatively and adversely… then stay away from them.

Alternatively though, remember this… that we who are children of God are called to the lost. Not everyone we meet or come across in life, is on our route… but I believe that there are SIMPLE things that we can do to make people feel welcome.

Accepting the sinner… does not mean that you will necessarily have to become buddy-buddy & touchy with them… but it does mean that you have to be friendly and cordial around them.

Not accepting the sin means that obviously, this person was made in the VERY same image of the God who created you… no matter how messed up he/she is in life.

SIMPLE things you can do around people you feel totally uncomfortable around is:

* Smile at people.
* Whenever possible & feasible, help them out.
* Let the love of God that is within you… be shown on the outside by the things you do or say.

Also, pray to your Heavenly Father to give you a heart for those people Greta. Again, you’re right in saying that you (or I for a fact) can’t be around EVERY one, especially people that will bring you down spiritually and/or naturally… but my belief is that those people who actually want to better themselves & want to seek God, need to be accepted.

You see, I cannot be a phony. But everyone expects hugs from me, which I freely and lovingly give, but not these people. I can FEEL the darkness in them and must stay away from their physical presence, as it affects me negatively. A hug would be sickening, as it surely is not genuine (on my part anyway)plus also can transfer the darkness to me. I am just now becoming free from the awful influence they have had in my life for many years.

So what would you do Daniel? At this point in time, I cannot embrace the sinner, although with God’s grace, I am in the process of forgiving the sin.

Bless you dear sir for this word:)