Proverbs 17:9 Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. 10 A single rebuke does more for a person of understanding than a hundred lashes on the back of a fool.
There are many different keys to maintaining healthy relationships, but a master key is to keep short accounts.
If someone offends you, quickly deal with it and forgive.
Don't put it on the back burner and produce it every time there is a row.
Don't keep on about it!
1 Corinthians 13:5 states that love keeps no record of wrongs.
Honestly, I am so happy to recount that God completely forgives and covers my sin, but do I follow in His footsteps? Or, do I secretly create little accounts of people who have wronged me? If prompted, can I readily produce evidence of someone's guilt toward me from the past?
If that is my inner behaviour, I can expect to have a trail of broken friendships.
Love only works through forgiveness.
I should speak up, forgive, then shut up.
My lovely mum used to quote a sermon she'd heard long ago:
"Failing to forgive is like blowing up a bridge over which I too have to cross"!
If I find myself regurgitating old episodes to my nearest and dearest with sayings like "you always do that" or "I remember when you ... (fill in the blanks)', then I still have a way to go in forgiveness and love.
Following that pattern may turn me into an old nag-bag (perish the thought).
That's when my relationships can start to fail.
Prayer
Father God, please create in me a good "forget-ary" so that I can live in the true freedom of forgiveness between You and my fellow human beings. Thank you for all the wrongs that Jesus has forgiven me and covered over with His Blood!
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