Beyond Discouragement, Anger and Resentment to Forgiveness

Last week we looked at The Open Loop of Conflict. This week we will be looking at the second and third aspects.

The Fork in the Road
Whenever an offense opens a loop in our relationship, we have a choice. We can decide to do what is needed to close the loop, or we can do nothing and suffer the painful consequences. Sounds like a no-brainer decision, doesn’t it? Yet our experience over the years has convinced us that husbands and wives have difficulty choosing to heal their hurts. We will look more closely at this important choice and identify some common hindrances to it.

The Closed Loop of Healing
The Bible provides clear instructions for resolving conflict and healing hurts. Once we make the choice to exercise forgiving love in our marriage, God will empower us for the task by his Spirit and will set in motion the healing process.

Closing the loop begins with preparing our heart diffusing our anger, and communicating our concerns to our spouse. Next, we need to confront our conflicts, forgive our spouse, and rebuild our trust as husband and wife.

Gary Rosberg shares with us a Biblically-based plan for healing the hurts in our marriage. God’s Word is full of instruction, admonition, and encouragement about our relationships at every level, including marriage. Gary relates to us one of Jesus’ parables that is foundational to the process of forgiving love in marriage, as well as in other relationships.

ACTION ASSIGNMENT
This week let us spend some time and introspect our conflicts in marriage to see which are in the Open Loop of Conflict and which are in the Closed Loop of Healing.

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, help us to humble ourselves and honestly do our Action Assignment, through accepting our part in the conflicts and not adhere to blame shift game. In Jesus’ name, amen.