Help for the Wronged Person

Over the last several years, we have moved a lot and stayed at many different places while we traveled. Recently we moved out of the house that we had rented for two years. As always, our goal in leaving any place is to leave it better than we found it. Though the house and yard had always been in disrepair from before we moved in, our goal was still the same as it had always been. We cleaned, did a few minor repairs, and put in a partial new lawn, all in an effort to "leave things better than we found them." So when the owners charged us to do more costly things to improve the property, we were not only disheartened, but extremely frustrated.

Not being able to have any recourse, left us skeptical and leery of any future rental situations. Would we have to pour this type of money into our next rental? Would we feel helpless again and at the mercy of the next landlords? Would everyone lie to us and try to get more money out of us the way they had at the last property?

Questions like this were the first thoughts in my mind as we moved into the new place. However, as always, Scripture came along and comforted me, as well as, pointed out the flaws in my thinking. According to Proverbs 3:29 & 30, we are told not to "devise evil against our neighbors" and not to "strive with a man without a cause."  In other words, don't automatically think that a person will do wrong to you just because someone of that same position or same race did wrong to you.

Although we should be prudent in situations, we don't need to feel that everyone, or even certain ones, are always trying to take advantage of us.