We act as we do because of our personalities and our life experiences. We are born with a temperament that shapes who we are. Life experiences then modify our temperament. As a result, our past affects our present. One thing that can be particularly problematic is old baggage.

Old baggage is the stuff from our past that affects how we react to current situations. It can show up in your relationships in the following ways:

•  You overreact to something that happens because it reminds you of something in the past.
•  You accuse someone of doing something they didn’t do because you assume their action is the same as another person’s was.
•  You project your fears, distrust, and negative expectations onto someone who is not that way, and yet you refuse to believe their word.
•  You react like you did as a child or in a previous relationship because it is the only way you know how to handle uncertainty and stress.
•  You are extremely sensitive about certain things that have happened to you in the past, and as a result you put a strain on your relationship, yet you still expect the other person to adjust to your sensitivities and understand.
•  You are unable to resolve issues because the discussion gets highly emotional and reaches an impasse with the same reoccurring patterns.

When any of these things happen, be open to the possibility that it is old baggage. It is important that you understand how your past has affected you. You need to identify the wounds, process them, recognize how they affect your responses today, and resolve to identify the baggage when it shows up. If you don’t, you will find yourself dealing with it again and damaging your current relationships.

By Karla Downing

Relationship Devotional Prayer

 
God,

Help me to recognize old baggage when it shows up in my current relationships. Give me the ability to process things differently today.

Relationship Devotional Challenge

• What old baggage are you bringing into your current relationships?

Scripture Meditation

 
Romans 7:21-25

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin” (NIV).

Just as our old sin nature affects us, so does our past. We must continually be aware of the fact that both of them can make it difficult for us to choose what is right.