Happily Ever After: Devotions from Time of GraceSample
When Your Marriage Is in Trouble: What if I Can’t Forget the Past?
Communicating, listening, showing compassion, and emotional bonding are all things men in general need to work on. Holding grudges is one for the ladies. It can be wonderful to have a memory like an elephant when it comes to remembering anniversaries and distant relatives’ names. It can be an anger prison when your thoughts are dominated by old hurts.
Someone long ago invented the cliche forgive and forget. That's impossible. You can't expunge pain memories from your mind as though tapping the Delete key. The key to moving on is to learn how to forgive while remembering.
St. Paul has some splendid advice for grudge holders: “[Love] is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5). In other words, you may indeed remember your partner’s old sins, but you can choose not to continue blaming him. It’s sort of like being a judge and ruling that the statute of limitations applies.
Choosing to keep no record of wrongs is learned behavior. You can do it.
Communicating, listening, showing compassion, and emotional bonding are all things men in general need to work on. Holding grudges is one for the ladies. It can be wonderful to have a memory like an elephant when it comes to remembering anniversaries and distant relatives’ names. It can be an anger prison when your thoughts are dominated by old hurts.
Someone long ago invented the cliche forgive and forget. That's impossible. You can't expunge pain memories from your mind as though tapping the Delete key. The key to moving on is to learn how to forgive while remembering.
St. Paul has some splendid advice for grudge holders: “[Love] is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5). In other words, you may indeed remember your partner’s old sins, but you can choose not to continue blaming him. It’s sort of like being a judge and ruling that the statute of limitations applies.
Choosing to keep no record of wrongs is learned behavior. You can do it.
Scripture
About this Plan
Marriage is an amazing gift from God, but it is also hard. Many marriages struggle - partners either don’t know how to treat each other or they know and don't want to change. These devotions, one for each day of your month, are for married people, for those who hope to be married, and for all of you who used to be married. Re-listen to God's words about this sacred institution and rededicate your ways to be more like his ways.
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We would like to thank Time of Grace for providing this plan. For more information, please visit www.timeofgrace.org.