Exhorting one another in love….

I do not have people do confront me very often. Today a very harried and stressed person, whom I have known a long time, inflicted hurt on someone else, near to me. I can think in my head of all the reasons why she did it, but I was shocked, frankly.

I sat and listened to many people who talk about standing up for yourself, cutting people out of their lives for this reason or that reason, getting rid of people who hurt them, and all for good reasons. There are many times I agree with them. I also see other people, people who have convictions and firm beliefs, who stand for those beliefs  and I admire that. But when they take those beliefs and use them to fling accusations at someone, it is a little hard to swallow.

Yes, we are to confront someone we believe has sinned. But, if we are believers we should confront them in love to restore such a one to repentance. If we simply fling out words to another accusing them of some wrong doing, we do not restore others, but simply are causing pain without the healing balm that Jesus gives.

Jesus does rebuke, but He also has a way of giving a way to repent, even while paying with the consequences of our mistake, whether it is as large as  harming another person, or as simple as dropping a loaf of bread on the floor, our mother just baked.

When we lash out in frustration, and tell the truth, do we bring the  person who offended or sinned against us to repentance? It makes the truth null and void when we deliver it in a way that cannot be used, when we deliver it in anger.

I just want to admonish others, if you have something against someone, make sure you have the right situation to approach them. Don’t hold things in your heart, discuss them with others and blow up when you finally get them paying attention to you.