Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Day 20 - Restoring Broken Fellowship


20 DAYS COMPLETED!
Sound the trumpets! We have made it to the halfway point in our journey. You have succeeded in staying the course. Your commitment is paying off. Doesn't it feel good to achieve this much of your goal? Looking back, can you see how much you have grown? What a blessing this journey has been.

This has truly been a great adventure!
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DAY 20

Point to Ponder: Relationships are always worth restoring.

Verse to Remember: "Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody." Romans 12:18 (TEV)

Question to Consider: Who do I need to restore a broken relationship with today?


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3 comments:

  1. This is one of those hard-reads. I thought I was in the clear from the "tough" issues =P

    "God expects unity, not uniformity, and we can walk arm-in-arm without seeing eye-to-eye on every issue." pg. 158
    I know there are broken relationships in my past. There has been broken relationships due to gossip, lies and just not seeing eye to eye. I have to look at my heart-attitude and realize that I don't hold any resentment or anger toward those people. In this case, I believe it's okay to walk away realizing we will never be close friends. I need to continue to love them as a brother in Christ.

    This is a harder issue- my family. My dad excommunicating me from the family. My mom calling me "choice" words, and my brother just fending for my parents all have not talked to me for about 9-10 months now. This is where I feel injustice, anger and pain. I do want to make ammends, but my pride says I was the offended. I have much praying and soul searching to do...

    I do want to make a note from Scripture and wisdom from good Christian pastors/authors; You don't have to put yourself in a situation where there can be consistant harm- verbal abuse, disrespect, and harmful actions. We are told to flee. Flee from evil and to build hedges around yourself and family. Protection is more important that putting yourself in harm's way when you know there isn't a chance for reconciliation and forgiveness.

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  2. This is a difficult chapter indeed. Jess has been fortunate to not really have any broken relationships that she can recall. I'm fortunate to not have many broken relationships either, but a few I did break I felt were necessary to distance myself from potential and unnecessary conflict. Once upon a time I also ended friendship with a female friend because her and another friend I'd known longer broke up - I was trying to be loyal to my friend even though I had nothing against her.

    In short, Rick Warren lies. Some relationships are not worth restoring. I suppose he and I will have to agree to disagree :)

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  3. Hmmmmmmm. My first comment to Jeff after reading this chapter was- "he's talking about christian to christian relationships, right?" Hee hee. Of course I would be really happy if I could get away with that. But..... I guess the best I can say is I've made attempts in my past to reconcile with several family members that continued to abuse my relationship with them time and time again. You know, it's a hard decision to split with people but when those relationships involve gossip and hate and harm I really don't see another option. "Making amends" would only (and has only) start the whole process back up all over again. When lying and gossip are involved, I believe you can be the best person in the world -completely above reproach- and people can still accuse you of things and lie about you anyways because that's what they thrive on. I am working on forgiveness of others right now and I am sorry to say I am definately not even near a road of reconciliation. I also know that to protect the sanity of my marriage and the safety of my kids it's really not the best option. I do believe God can work miracles- I don't want to sound so final- it's just not the right time in our lives.

    Who do I need to restore a broken relationship with today? Well, I would like to say my dad but I haven't heard from him in over a year and all attempts at restoration have been thwarted by my stepmom (I sound like I'm writing a Sherlock Holmes novel- thwarted). Anyways there's so much brokenness there I wouldn't know where to begin. But I will commit to praying about it and maybe God will open a door- who knows?

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