I've been bitter in my soul and I've met bitter people. Sure, I may have hid it well. I may have hidden it so well that even I didn't recognize the bitterness sitting within me, holding me back.
I've choked back words that have threatened to bubble over full of contempt, spite and anger. I've cried angry tears and ranted and raved in the solitude of my home.
In the darkest moment of great despair, Hannah wept much. She had real, raw emotions and she expressed them. She may have stomped her feet, clenched her fists and shuddered an ugly cry.
Then she prayed to the Lord.
What about me? When my soul is bitter, what do I do? Do I sit in the bitterness letting it fester? Take it to other people looking for sympathy and commiseration?
Hannah teaches me to feel deeply but then to take my feelings and turn them to the Lord. To be able to say like she does later in the passage, "I was pouring my soul out to the Lord.... I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief."
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