“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
– Matthew 6:14-15
 If we want to grow in our relationships, we must become experts at reconciling, at being the bigger person, and especially at being first. Now if you’re the reconciler — and a lot of times it’s one person in the relationship — the next time there’s an argument and you decide that you’re not going to be the first. You say, “No, no! I’m not doing it this time. They have to talk to me.” And I want to just say that to having good relationships means eating crow, setting your pride aside, asking for forgiveness, and being the first to forgive. Also, be overjoyed that you even have someone in your life to forgive, and that you have someone in your life that will forgive you. That’s what it means to have friends, to have a spouse and to have a family; it means we forgive each other. We forgive. We can lay our pride aside and be the first. |
Prayer
Thank you, God, for your forgiveness. Help me to offer that same forgiveness to my loved ones.
Reflection
How can you be first today?