TICKED OFF

TICKED OFF

Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”

I was focusing on a bible study, taking in great wisdom on teaching my kids about obedience and sacrifice, when the words on the page jumped off and punched me in the chest! It read, “When involved in conflicts with friends or siblings ask your child, ‘Which one of you is going to be like Jesus and sacrifice? Do you care more about your friend or about winning the argument?”

I took a deep breath and heard the Holy Spirit’s still voice whisper, “well, what are you going to do Sheila???” My husband and I had just had a little, eh hem,  disagreement 2 days prior and I was still holding on to some of the wounds from that disagreement. Sacrifice, what a concept! How can I teach this wisdom to my kids if in my own stubbornness I have not been the one to sacrifice? I am caring more about winning the argument then my own husband!! I am being no example for the Lord. I am definitely not being an example for my kids!!

The next part of the Bible study that focused on marriage was on; yep you guessed it, conflict. I have always been a bit afraid of conflict. Coming from a long line of divorced women and seeing much conflict in my parents’ marriage made me not even want to get married. Conflict =problems=escalation in emotion=misery in my eyes and I did not want misery! She said something in that study that struck me. She said conflict is not necessarily a sign that your marriage is in trouble. It is an opportunity God is using to grow us up, make us more like Him, and bring Him glory! We need to change our mindset and stop looking at conflict as if it’s a bad thing.

James 1:2-4  “Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

What we fight about is rarely the main issue. We need to remember that if we handle conflict in our marriage properly it can produce great results and what an example we will be to our children if we hold on to this!

How are you doing in this? Has something happened in your marriage to give you the opportunity to be more like Jesus today?

*Some information courtesy of Mom's on  a Mission from Rio Vista Church