“… lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3 (NLT)
We live in a fallen and broken world filled with imperfect people. We all have weaknesses. We all do things that hurt other people. We also all have times when we expect something from another person unfairly. We may expect them to know what we are thinking even if we don’t speak it plainly and only give hints to our concerns. We may expect them to remember something we mentioned in passing that is important to us without telling them it was important.
Since we each have faults, we should remember to be understanding of others’ imperfections. We should offer the level of understanding we would want from others. As we work through conflict, our goal should be to bring us together in unity, not prove we are better than everyone else. We can also remind ourselves that the mistakes that were made were not intentionally hurtful, but they were just mistakes.
Prayer: God, thank you that you love me. Help me to remember that others make mistakes just as I do. Help me to show your love by making allowance for others’ faults. In Jesus name. Amen.