In 2003 there was a film called Mona Lisa Smile that followed the lives of three young women in 1950s Massachusetts. There is a powerful scene near the end in which Betty, played by Kristen Dunst, attacks Giselle, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, with insults. She lashes out at Giselle for her promiscuity, calling her every ugly name she could think of. Just at the moment when the audience would assume that Giselle has had enough and that she is going to strike back, she walks over to Betty, wraps her arms around her, and hugs her. While Betty initially resists, she eventually softens, returns the hug, and begins to sob. It turns out that the reason why she was lashing out was because of her sadness and anger about the infidelities of her own husband. At a moment when Giselle was receiving curses, she returned a blessing. This scene is beautiful because it seems so unlikely. For most of us, we would not be thinking of the needs of the person who was tossing insults our way. We would strike back or, at the very least, we would write the person off and speak badly about them to others. Instead, Giselle showed a picture of returning a blessing for a curse. In the passage covered in this lesson, Peter encourages believers toward the strange and rare practice is returning blessing to those who are cursing them. But he doesn’t simply give them this burdensome command without giving them insight into how God has uniquely equipped them to practice it. As you read through the lesson, consider how you are responding to those who are bringing difficulty into your life, and consider how God might be calling you to change your approach.