A story tells that two friends were walking through a desert. During some point in the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one on the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, he wrote in the sand: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME ON THE FACE".

They kept walking until they found an oasis where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mud and started drowning, but his friend saved him. After he recovered from nearly drowning, he wrote on a stone: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.”

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone, why?"

He replied, "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where the winds of forgiveness can erase it, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone, where the wind can never erase it.”

We will all be wronged at one time or another, and we will experience feelings of anger as well. Anger is one of the emotions given to us by God, however, it should not be our first response. We are told throughout the Bible, in more ways than one, to be slow to anger like God is slow to anger. When speaking about the love we are to show one another in 1 Corinthians 13:5, we are told that love is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. The latter is much easier said than done! Our human nature would rather hold a grudge, or take revenge into our own hands for wrongs done against us, but when we choose to demonstrate God’s love to others and follow His example, this is truly the best way to testify to others.

Overlooking wrongs does not mean that we turn a blind eye to injustices around us, or pretend that sin does not exist. Rather it means that we are willing to forgive others, especially when the ones wronged are us. We don’t intentionally stay in harmful situations, but we pray for the offender and trust God to intervene, even if that means removing ourselves from the situation if necessary. Let the love and forgiveness we have received from God be an encouragement to do the same to others.

Suggested prayer: Lord, thank you for forgiving and forgetting my wrongdoings when I confess them to you. Help me practice self-control in every situation and respond in love instead of anger. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.  

1. Proverbs 19:11 (NLT).

Today’s Encounter was written by: Crystal B.