Relationships are delicate affairs.
However strong they are, it doesn’t take much to destabilise them. For every disappointment, there is a layer of distrust that makes future relationships harder to develop.
One way I have experienced that is with the case of those niggling small unresolved matters. You know. Your friend does something slightly annoying, they don’t know it’s annoying, so you let it slide. Later on the same thing happens, you’re slightly uncertain whether it’s worth mentioning, so you drop it. By the third time it happens you address the matter and seek to explain to the friend why it’s an issue. Unfortunately your friend is puzzled as to why you’re making a big deal of a matter that they have done habitually.
All of a sudden an unresolved issue has lead to all sorts of barriers being raised.
It gets uglier when we look at situations where things happen that not only are not resolved, but become the subject of the gossip. One episode gets blown out of all proportion, the truth gets somewhat mired in a deluge of smears, exaggerations and irrelevant babble. Meanwhile relationships are messed up and what kind of example does that set for those looking on?
Walking in the light, as Jesus is the light, means we can expose things to see whether it fits the Kingdom values we uphold. We’re still growing to have the kind of loving relationship which doesn’t allow unresolved matters to dwell. Those matters are growth opportunities and if we can resolve them as soon as possible, we can display truly loving relationships.
In a world with so many messed up relationships, it is good to know the love of God can help us prevent more messes.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 